Immersion, a company that develops and licenses haptic touch feedback technology, today filed a lawsuit against Apple and AT&T accusing the two companies of patent infringement. Citing technologies like 3D Touch, Force Touch, the Apple Watch Taptic Engine, and vibration patterns for ringtones and notifications, Immersion says multiple Apple devices use its intellectual property.
Another interesting case.
This was bound to happen. Immersion has been doing haptics for two decades and has a particularly strong patent portfolio in haptics based HMI. They feel slighted by how Apple has been negotiating with them. It’s also a matter of company survival.