Rambus goes after NVIDIA (part 2)

Posted on Friday, November 07 2008 @ 0:08 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck
A couple of months ago Rambus filed a patent infringement lawsuit against NVIDIA over SDR, DDR, DDR2, DDR3, GDDR, and GDDR3 SDRAM memory controller patents and today the firm has filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC):
Rambus Inc. (Nasdaq:RMBS - News), one of the world’s premier technology licensing companies specializing in high-speed memory architectures, today announced it has filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) requesting the commencement of an investigation pertaining to NVIDIA products. The complaint seeks an exclusion order barring the importation, sale for importation, or sale after importation of products that infringe nine Rambus patents from the Ware and Barth families of patents. The accused products include NVIDIA products that incorporate DDR, DDR2, DDR3, LPDDR, GDDR, GDDR2, and GDDR3 memory controllers, including graphics processors, and media and communications processors.

The complaint names NVIDIA as a proposed respondent, as well as companies whose products incorporate accused NVIDIA products and are imported into the United States. These respondents include: Asustek Computer Inc. and Asus Computer International, BFG Technologies, Biostar Microtech and Biostar Microtech International Corp., Diablotek Inc., EVGA Corp., G.B.T. Inc. and Giga-Byte Technology Co., Hewlett-Packard, MSI Computer Corp. and Micro-Star International Co., Palit Multimedia Inc. and Palit Microsystems Ltd., Pine Technology Holdings, and Sparkle Computer Co.

“We believe this action is necessary given NVIDIA’s continued willful infringement of our patents,” said Tom Lavelle, senior vice president and general counsel at Rambus. “Rambus engineers and scientists have made tremendous contributions to the industry, and we need to protect our patented inventions on behalf of our shareholders and in fairness to our paying licensees.”

The ITC is expected to decide whether to initiate an investigation under this complaint within 30 days. In a separate action, Rambus filed a patent infringement suit against NVIDIA in July 2008.


About the Author

Thomas De Maesschalck

Thomas has been messing with computer since early childhood and firmly believes the Internet is the best thing since sliced bread. Enjoys playing with new tech, is fascinated by science, and passionate about financial markets. When not behind a computer, he can be found with running shoes on or lifting heavy weights in the weight room.



Loading Comments