14 DAY TRIAL // Earlier this year, when things started to look very bad for the Santa Clara, California-based graphics maker NVIDIA, we reported on a lawsuit involving both the green company and Rambus. Back then, Rambus sued NVIDIA for an alleged infringement of 17 patents, including memory controllers for SDR, DDR, DDR2, DDR3, GDDR and GDDR3 SDRAM.
It now appears that Rambus has thought of yet another to “pick on” this chip maker. The Los Altos, California-based technology licensing company has filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), requesting that NVIDIA be banned from importing or selling products that allegedly infringe nine Rambus patents, from the Ware and Barth families of patents.
“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.”
According to the filed complaint, Rambus does not only point the finger at the green company, but also at all those companies that implement the NVIDIA’s patent infringing products. Basically, Rambus also takes on all of NVIDIA's partners, including major companies such as 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.
The ITC is expected to come to a decision within 30 days as to whether to initiate an investigation regarding Rambus' complaint. In the meanwhile, NVIDIA still has to deal with the infringement suit filed by Rambus in July. Nevertheless, the latest legal action could also seriously impact the company's business.