ATI getting Sued?

i doubt they will stop prducing it, hopefully they can reach an agrement of somesort or even better ATI wind the case. I hope it doesnt affect the release of future cards

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/24/sgi_ati_lawsuit...

I really think ATI will win, possibly the whole thing will be tossed out of court. On the other hand, its really hard to predict what courts will do in these crazy days. ATI has been making Radeon cards for how many years? And now, out of the blue, some company claims a patent infringment. If that was true, why didn't they say something years ago?

Looks to me like a company that's filing a suit with no other intention of costing ATI/AMD a lot of money defending it and with the outside hope that a judge will side with them. Then it gets appealed, costs ATI more money, and finally someone says enough and dismisses it. Unfortunately, its a lawsuit happy world we live in, and anybody can sue anyone else and get away with it. Heck, my ex-wife of 17 years has now decided she wants some of the money I've made in the last few years so she's suing me in court for her share. She doesn't stand a chance in court, unless she gets a sympathetic California judge to side with her. Then it gets appealed, costing me more time, more money, etc.

I hope not as well. After looking at what Nvidia is going to pump out for the new Direct X 10 I want to get my self an ATI that will be fully compatible and if this law suit goes though I will have to wait even longer to get a Direct X 10 (fully compatible) card. That and well ATI is make such good cards as of late I would hate to see them lose all of these great cards and allow Nvidia to exist with out competition (for high end cards)

All these lawsuits... all happening at once... Intel getting sued by Transmeta, and now ATI by SGI... craziness.... oh well, the most dangerous foe is a desperate foe... and unfortunately, ATI have to deal with an especially desperate one. I just hope the Radeon name doesn't disappear... for I will mourn its passing if such thing were to happen...

You are overly concerned.

Even if SGI has a good chance, Ati will settle out of court for compensation. That's how business works.

Ati has probably been sued a million times you don't even know about, the same with Nvidia, AMD, Intel, IBM, etc. It's part of running a big business, has been since the 80's at least.

From what I read at Toms they are asking ATI to stop making all redeon cards if they win

After seeing this I feel much more confident that ATI wont have to stop making the Radeons  

After seeing this I feel much more confident that ATI wont have to stop making the Radeons  

Those two things make the possiblity of winning very difficult. A judge would first ask that if SGI didn't go to court against Nvidia, why should they now be in court against ATI? Second, since the "key 3D patents" were transfered to Microsoft, it would then be Microsoft's property, not SGI's. That would mean only Microsoft could persue the case. Since Microsoft hasn't, and it is a suit happy company, then the case probably doesn't stand a chance.

Yes that was what I was talking about. Sorry I wasn't more clear.

Does anyone else but me think that IP laws are getting way out of hand today? IP makes sense to a point but when you take it too far you get what we are heading towards today, stifled innovation and a court system overloaded with patent infringement suits. I hope ATI wins this.

Good point, I missed that. Still, I could see ATI arguing this point in court, if only as a delaying tatic.

To AltairDusk, I agree, the IP laws are far over the top in the way they're being applied, and can lead to no one doing anything for fear of being sued. That helps no one and hurts consumers.

without IP laws the big bisnesses would just stay rich and steal ideas from the smaler groups. its very imporant parts of law so that someoen cant jsut come and steal your idea.

but with everything that is ment to do good. someoen will bend it and try to turn it bad for there gain

I agree 100%. Business' are always sueing each other. Even if they didn't get to stamp radeon on the box or get to use floating point rasterizing or whatever they would come up with other names for them and carry on their business as usual. Big deal.

BTW, the poll needs an indifferent option.

I guess some people forgot that SGI stands for Silicon Graphics Inc. Also they were involved in a couple of games that came out a while back in the 90's

R Collins

However patent / IP / Copyright law in the US is totally Fuked !!

It no longer does anywhere near what it's supposed to, and the only people it benifits right now are the lawyers, especially the F'in ones who buy defunct/bankrupt companies only to sue people (thus keeping themselves employed and not in anyway having the potential nor intention to promote further develpoment or production of the technology, like NPT - RIP. And even after their patent claims were rejected by the patent office upon review RIM still had to pay money for not obiding by some JackA$$ judge's ruling that they should pay. So the system is so far from where/what it's intended use is that it's sole purpose nowadays is to keep the rish rich, not to foster any utopian belief in development.



Except for the reality of how few times the little guy actually is the focus or the benfactor of the law, even in Edison's day he used it to flog his competition whether he was the rightful person or not. It always has been and always will be broken, until the laws are made by people without influence and without personal gain. Now that's a Utopian belief.

This just smacks of SCO's multi-headed lawsuit, a vain attempt to keep from closing the doors and going to the unemployement line.

They may have some grounds for action, but the description of the patent seems far FAR to general to be something that could not be arrived at through the natural progression of development, which wouldn't mean they don't have a case, it jst weakens their position for things such as injunctions. And that threat is simply to chill the investors, and in so doing try to force ATi/AMD to settle quickly. If they couldn't get nV to settle, I doubt they'll get AMD, and there is no way a Judge would halt the sale of all ATi VPUs on such a claim, it's far too impactful to their right to pursue a livelyhood and fair commerce (kinda ironic). The most that any judge would allow would be retroactive payment after a finding of guilt, which requires the trial or an acknowledgement or plea of guilt.

I don't think this will amount to more than corporate extrotion, the rats scurrying around on a sinking ship.

Yeah and you know what I thought of that myself, if this were about 'justice' then SGI wouldn't be allowed protection from their creditors only to attack an ongoing company. If anything any proceeds should go to those original creditors, the new owners are likely a LawFirm holding company like NPT.

I think if AMD/ATi had any inkling that this was going to happen they would've bought SGI outright at the bankruptcy firesale for a shinny penny and a bag of rotten spinach.

The patent is USPTO 6,650,327: Essentially, they want anyone using floating point frame-buffers to pay them money. No NEW TECHNOLOGY or INNOVATION here, just money grubbing.

from the patent: " the present invention results in a substantial increase in the range of data that can be stored in the frame buffer..."

Wow I'm surprised now, using FP increases the data range :roll:

I highly doubt the case will be sucessfull.

As for the Radeon name, ever since the first ones I've hated it, its been a brand of washing powder here in the UK for *years* before ATi even came about, so every time I hear it I think it will make my whites whiter than white  

But yeah, another almost bankrupt company clutching desperately at straws.