NVIDIA Sues Samsung and Qualcomm; Wants Devices Off The Shelves | TechTree.com

NVIDIA Sues Samsung and Qualcomm; Wants Devices Off The Shelves

Patents involve copied GPU architectures that NVIDIA says, Samsung and Qualcomm need to pay up for.

 

Clearly this is not the first time a tech company is after Samsung. NVIDIA the chipset maker who is now making a re-appearance on the mobile devices scene with its recently announced its 64-bit Tegra K1 chipset has launched a patent lawsuit that involves copied GPU architectures.

The company today filed patent infringement complaints against Samsung and Qualcomm with both the US International Trade Commission (ITC) and the US District Court in Delaware. Basically what the company is asking for is compensation for utilizing its patented GPU architectures in their chipsets. NVIDIA is also demanding an award for the damages Samsung owes to the company for infringing its patents.

While Samsung clearly comes out on top with the maximum number of devices at stake, Qualcomm is a part of this as well. NVIDIA wants to block shipments of all devices that contain Qualcomm’s Adreno, ARM’s Mali or Imagination’s PowerVR graphics architectures.

It is indeed the first time in 21 years of building GPUs that NVIDIA has initiated a patent lawsuit. The chipmaker had even approached and educated Samsung reps about how Samsung’s chips utilize the same graphics architectures that were built by NVIDIA.

“We made no progress. Samsung repeatedly said that this was mostly their suppliers’ problem.
Without licensing NVIDIA’s patented GPU technology, Samsung and Qualcomm have chosen to deploy our IP without proper compensation to us. This is inconsistent with our strategy to earn an appropriate return on our investment.”

After the Samsung and Apple Lawsuit fizzled out, seems like NVIDIA is out to milk some of Samsung’s billions. There are seven patents involved in all which all come under on single one called the “GPU”. Technically NVIDIA says that they invented the GPU and Samsung and Qualcomm are simply reaping the profits without paying NVIDIA first. Samsung on the other hand blames ARM and Imagination. Indeed everyone’s products are at stake here; at least those who do not choose to pay up for now.
 


TAGS: Patent, Patent Wars, NVIDIA, Samsung, Mobile Phones, Tablets

 
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