About Immersion

Immersion Corporation operates as a licensing company. The company focuses on the invention, acceleration, and scaling, through licensing, of innovative haptic technologies that allow people to use their sense of touch to engage with products and experience the digital world around them. The company is one of the leading experts in haptics, and the company’s focus on innovation allows the company to deliver world-class intellectual property (‘IP’) and technology that enables the creation of products that delight end users. The company’s technologies are designed to facilitate the creation of high-quality haptic experiences, enable their widespread distribution, and ensure that their playback is optimized. The company’s primary business is in the mobility, gaming, and automotive markets, but the company’s technology is broadly applicable and see opportunities in evolving new markets, including virtual and augmented reality, and wearables, as well as residential, commercial, and industrial Internet of Things. The company has adopted a business model under which the company offers licenses to its patented technology to the company’s customers and offer its customers enabling software, related tools and technical assistance designed to integrate the company’s patented technology into the company’s customers’ products or enhance the functionality of its patented technology. The company’s licenses enable its customers to deploy haptically-enabled devices, content and other offerings, which they typically sell under their own brand names. The company and its wholly-owned subsidiaries held more than 1,200 issued or pending patents worldwide as of December 31, 2022. The company’s patents cover a wide range of digital technologies and ways in which touch-related technology can be incorporated into and between hardware products and components, systems software, application software, and digital content. The company’s IP is relevant to many of the most important and cutting-edge ways in which haptic technology is and can be deployed, including in connection with mobile interfaces and user interactions, in association with pressure and other sensing technologies, as part of video and interactive content offerings, as related to virtual and augmented reality experiences, and in connection with advanced actuation technologies and techniques. The company’s portfolio includes numerous patents and patent applications that may become essential to emerging standards in development by Standards Development Organizations (‘SDOs’), including media standards in development by ISO/IEC Moving Picture Expert Group (MPEG) and software and system standards in development at IEEE-SA. Business Strategy The company’s strategies are to communicate the advantages of the company’s patented innovations and technologies to the relevant customers in target end-markets and encourage their adoption through demonstrations, incorporation in the offerings of world-class companies and participation in SSOs; license the company’s technology to customers for use in the creation, distribution and playback of high-quality haptic experiences in various products, services and markets; develop and patent the company’s innovative technology, in a targeted and cost-efficient manner, to provide haptics in mobile, gaming, automotive, wearable, virtual and augmented reality, and other products and services to transform user experiences with unique and customizable tactile effects; participate in the creation of ecosystem wide standards that will enable accelerated adoption of haptic technologies across the company’s core markets; and expand markets and applications. Offerings The company provides enabling technology, IP and haptic expertise to its customers through a variety of different offerings, including technology licenses, patent licenses, and combined licenses that cover both technology and patents. In most cases, the company provides patent licenses to its customers, and also offers technology licenses, which may include services, reference designs, and/or software development kits (‘SDKs’), with the specific rights and restrictions to the applicable patents described in the license agreements. When the company offers patent licenses, the company generally provides the customer with a defined right to use the company’s patented innovations in its own products, subject to limitations by specific field of use and other restrictions. The company’s agreements are typically structured with fixed, variable or a mix of fixed and variable royalty and/or license payments over certain defined periods, as well as, in certain cases, fees for support or other services. Patent Licenses The company’s portfolio included more than 1,200 worldwide issued or pending as of December 31, 2022, which support the company’s technology offerings, protect the company’s business activities and prospects, and represent an important independent licensing and revenue channel for the company. Technology and Engineering Offerings In addition to licensing the company’s patents to customers, the company offers licenses to its other technology through integrated licensing kit offerings that may include tools, software, firmware, reference designs, and related documentation to enable development and deployment of advanced haptic experiences in consumer devices and applications. The company’s offerings include: Reference Designs and Reference Technology The company offers reference designs for customers to use for technology evaluation and product development purposes. The company’s designs include documentation and materials that designers, engineers, and system integrators may utilize to integrate advanced haptics into existing or new products and applications. The company’s reference technologies include source code for host and embedded product development and are intended to accelerate adoption of licensed technologies by the company’s licensees. Software and Firmware The company offers software and firmware for OEMs and supply chain partners to integrate advanced haptic capabilities and optimize system performance. The company’s SDKs consist of tools, integration software and effect libraries that allow for the design, encoding and playback of tactile effects. The SDKs offer high-fidelity tactile effects to augment and enhance content, while ensuring quality playback within consumer devices. The company’s reference firmware is designed to optimize control and performance of haptic system hardware. Engineering and Integration Services The company offers engineering assistance, including technical and design assistance and integration services that allow the company’s licensees to incorporate the company’s touch-enabling solutions and technologies into their products at a reasonable cost and within a shortened time frame, allowing them to bring products to market quickly by using the company’s years of haptic development and solution deployment expertise. The company works with qualified engineering service providers to assist customers in integration activities. Markets Mobile Communications, Wearables, and Consumer Electronics The company offers haptic expertise to Original Equipment Manufacturers (‘OEM’) in the mobile, gaming, and related consumer electronics markets. The company’s licensees include some of the top makers of mobile devices in the world, including Samsung, Google, Sony, Panasonic, as well as integrated circuit manufacturers, such as Awinic and Dongwoon Anatech. Gaming and VR The company has licensed its patents directly to Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo for use in their console gaming products. The company has also licensed its patents to Sony for use in VR products. Additionally, the company has licensed its patents to third party gaming peripheral manufacturers and distributors for use in spinning mass and force feedback devices, such as controllers, steering wheels and joysticks, to be used with PC platforms running on Microsoft Windows and other operating systems, as well as in connection with video game consoles made by Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo and others. The company’s PC gaming licensees include Guillemot and Microsoft. The company will not receive any further royalties from Microsoft under the company’s agreement with Microsoft, including with respect to Microsoft’s gaming products or any other haptic-related product that Microsoft produces or sells. Automotive The company offers patent licenses and assistance such as reference designs, prototypes and enablement services to automotive makers and suppliers. The company’s licensees include ALPS Alpine, Continental, Preh, Nissha Co. Ltd., Mobase Electronics (formerly Seoyon Electronics), Tokai Rika and Vishay Intertechnology. Other The company offers patent licenses to other markets. The company’s licensees include Stanley, Nippon Seiki, Elan Microelectronics, Wacom Co., Ltd., and others. Sales The company’s revenue fluctuates quarterly and is generally higher in the third quarter of the company’s fiscal year (year ended December 2022) due to increased shipments by the company’s customers of licensed products in preparation for the holiday season. The company employ a consolidated direct sales force in the United States and Asia to license the company’s patents and other technology across the company’s target markets and augment that sales force via partnerships and licensing agreements with component suppliers and system integrators. Research and Development For the year ended December 31, 2022, the company’s research and development expenses were $1.4 million. History Immersion Corporation was founded in 1993. The company was incorporated in 1993 in California and reincorporated in Delaware in 1999.