PS3 rumble lawsuit returns from the grave

8:00 AM on 05.19.2009   |   Jim Sterling

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I'm sure you all remember Immersion, the parasites who sat on patents for rumble technology and then sued any company that dared use them. It led to the famously arrogant "Rumble is a last-gen feature" remark from Sony, before the company went crawling back to Immersion and settled a deal to create the DualShock 3. Rumble returned to the PS3, and it was all water under the bridge ... or was it?

During the original lawsuit, an engineer named Craig Thorner acted as a witness for Sony in a bid to "invalidate Immersion's patents." However, while he was Sony's ally two years ago, he now returns with a vengeance with his own suit against Sony. It's all a bit like a soap opera, except with absolutely no good characters. 

Thorner claims that, during the original lawsuit, he was approached by Performance Design Products LLC, a third-party peripheral maker that was also targeted by Immersion. Allegedly, Thorner licensed some of his own patents to PDP, but was encouraged by Sony and PDP lawyers to "to accept terms that were less than favorable," including a reduction of royalty fees, and the allowance of not just PDP but also Sony to use his patents. 

Thorner smells a rat and has accused PDP of conspiring with Sony to screw him over. Naturally, this has led to a lawsuit, which is the only way of doing things in America. The courtroom drama continues, with nobody worth rooting for.