Patent infringement has been the talk of the town for quite some time now and Microsoft in no stranger to the infringements. The Software Giant Microsoft was busy with the acquisitions and innovations when maybe a lawsuit which was filed against them went unnoticed in their ‘intellectual property’ category. Impulse Technology which is a company based in Ohio, had sued Microsoft for infringing seven patents which were infringed for Kinect.
The lawsuit can be detailed as below:
Impulse Technology Ltd. v. Microsoft Corporation et al
U.S. District Court, District of Delaware
Case No. 11-cv-00586, Filed July 1, 2011
Talking about the reason for filing the lawsuit, it was filed for violations which pertains to assessing and tracking movement skills mainly which is in multidimensional spaces. The patents which were infringed are U.S. Patent Nos. 6,308,565; 6,430,997; 6,765,726; 6,876,496; 6,749,432 ; 7,359,121; and 7,791,808. Of the above, U.S. Patent No 6,749,432 covers “Education system challenging a subject’s physiologic and kinesthetic systems to synergistically enhance cognitive function” while the others describe “System and method for tracking and assessing movement skills in multidimensional space.”
Impulse Technology alleged that since March the company has been detailing the Software Giant about the infringement which had been infringed since 2001. The complaint states that the
coverage of the patents included a “wide variety of games where the movement of a player is tracked in three dimensions … and certain exercise games where the motion of the player is tracked to effect movement of a virtual avatar, and the exertion of the user is monitored, including where the tracking of the player is done by use of a camera.”
But to one’s surprise, Microsoft is not the only party against whom the lawsuit is filed, but Konami, Sega, THQ, Ubisoft, Electronic Arts and a few others even are accused of the same. It alleged that each and every company on the list is guilty of not only making and selling games, but even exercising the import in the US market. Another point mentioned in the lawsuit is that Microsoft has infringed the above mentioned patents willfully and alleged that the infringement was contributory, inducing and direct.
The patent owners in this case said that they would look out to seek attorneys’ fees and costs, interest, treble damages, damages and most importantly a permanent injunction form the infringing companies. Relating to the case, Law360 said that Microsoft representative confirmed that the matter is being reviewed and has nothing much to comment on. However Microsoft’s Director of Public Affairs, Kevin Kutz stated that for the time being as it cannot be briefly commented on, he ensured that the company has always invested heavily to protect their rights relating to intellectual property. He concluded saying that there are number of patents which are already issued relating to Kinect and additionally numerous patents are still pending.