Microsoft is being sued by an Ohio-based company called Impulse Technology for allegedly infringing on its patents with the rapidly selling Kinect motion-sensing video game controller and filed suit claimed that the controller-free motion tracking violates its patents for System and method for tracking and assessing movement skills in multidimensional space. The company claims that Microsoft is willfully infringing on these patents and although this will be an interesting piece of news to watch, because other companies have also invested in motion- and position-detecting technologies in gaming and other applications…………..
Microsoft and eight video game makers were targeted in a suit alleging they infringed several of Impulse Technology Ltd.’s motion tracking patents and an Ohio-based plaintiff alleges that Microsoft’s Xbox 360 game console add-on Kinect improperly incorporates technology that tracks users movements and lets them play video games without a controller. Impulse Technology filed the suit in federal court in Delaware, accusing Microsoft and several game makers–including Electronic Arts, Ubisoft and THQ–of violating patents related to, among other things, tracking and assessing movement skills in multidimensional space. Impulse claims that the Kinect violates seven patents, issued from 2001 to last year. In its suit, the company said it notified Microsoft in March about the patents. The suit does not mention if Microsoft replied to the notification. And Impulse’s attorney did not return a call. Microsoft declined to address the specific charges, but said it works hard to make sure its products don’t violate patent holders’ rights. “While we can’t comment about this specific case, Microsoft invests heavily in protecting our intellectual property rights and has hundreds of pending and issued patents covering Kinect,” Kevin Kutz, director of public affairs at Microsoft, said in a statement.
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