Kalakshar US

Immersion Corporation has been suing companies over its rumble haptic technology since at least (checks archives) 2004, and now it has a new company in its sights. Immersion has accused Valve of infringing its patents with the Steam Deck handheld, the Valve Index VR platform, Steam VR software and games including Half-Life: Alyx, The Verge has reported.

Immersion wants an injunction against Valve “from deploying, operating, maintaining, testing and using the Accused Handheld Instrumentalities and Accused VR Instrumentalities,” it stated in some fine legalese, and is asking for damages and royalties as well. It cited seven specific patents dating from 2002 to 2016.

If Valve wants to fight this, they’ve got a mountain of precedent to overcome. Both Sony and Microsoft ended up licensing Immersion’s patents after settling lawsuits, and Apple, Google, Motorola and Fitbit did the same. Nintendo and Sony use a different form of rumble tech, but both elected to license Immersion’s patents. Valve uses the same type of rumble tech as Nintendo and Sony.

It appears that Immersion didn’t sue Valve for its Steam Controller, which was killed back in 2019. The Steam Deck appears to be a much bigger success in terms of sales, however, and has generally been a hit with both critics and gamers.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/valve-is-the-latest-company-to-be-sued-by-immersion-over-its-steam-deck-rumble-tech-095043279.html?src=rss 

Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes has failed to convince the court to let her stay out of prison while she’s appealing her 11-year sentence. According to The Wall Street Journal, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said Holmes’ appeal doesn’t raise legal issues or questions that could impact the outcome of the case. Further, even if it does raise questions, they still wouldn’t be enough to overturn her fraud conviction. 

Holmes had asked the court to pause her sentence a couple of days before she was supposed to report to prison on April 27th, with her lawyers arguing that she wasn’t a flight risk. The appeals court delayed her reporting date while it considered her request, but it has ultimately decided that she has to start serving her sentence. A district court that previously denied the same request from her camp recommended that she serve her time at a Bryan, Texas federal prison camp, which allows family visitations. The appeals court will now decide on a new reporting date for the former executive. 

In addition to her request being denied, Holmes and former Theranos CEO Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani have also been ordered to pay $452 million in restitution to the blood startup’s investors. If you’ll recall, Theranos promised to revolutionize healthcare with a technology that could diagnose hundreds of diseases with just a few drops of blood. It soon came out, however, that its technology didn’t work and that it was using traditional machines modified to use lesser amounts of blood to run its tests. Rupert Murdoch, executive chairman of News Corp, will get the biggest share at $125 milli. Meanwhile, Walgreens, which was once Theranos’ biggest partner and even provided tests in its drugstores, is getting $40 million. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/theranos-founder-elizabeth-holmes-fails-in-bid-to-stay-out-of-prison-during-appeal-103222348.html?src=rss 

Tesla is known for being ad-averse and hasn’t really ran traditional advertising since it launched in the early 2000’s, choosing to rely on word of mouth to promote its vehicles instead. Now things could change for the automaker. During the company’s latest shareholder meeting, Tesla chief Elon Musk replied to an audience question regarding advertising with: “We will try a little advertising and see how it goes.” Apparently, the executive changed his mind about advertising after acquiring Twitter, which makes most of its money from ads. 

“It’s indeed ironic that Twitter is highly dependent on advertising. Here I am, never used advertising really before, and now I have a company that’s highly dependent on advertising. So, I guess I should say advertising is awesome, and everyone should do it.” That’s a total reversal from the executive’s previous stance. He said a few years ago that he hated advertising and that Tesla uses money other automakers set aside for ads and endorsements “to make the product great.”

In his response during the shareholder meeting, Musk said Tesla vehicles have functionalities and features that most people don’t know about. The company does post them on its Twitter account, but he acknowledges that doing so is like preaching to the choir. In a follow-up interview with CNBC, he said ads could be “informative and entertaining” so that they’re more content than typical advertisements. He suggested that future Tesla ads could take on that format and highlight its vehicles’ lesser-known features. 

Musk has also teased two new EVs during the shareholder meeting, where he said that the vehicles’ design and manufacturing techniques “are head and shoulders above anything else that is present in the industry.” He said that the company is already in the process of “building a new product,” which could mean that Tesla is already working on a prototype for at least one of the EVs.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/tesla-may-reverse-its-stance-and-start-advertising-060638995.html?src=rss