Nvidia Countersues Intel on License Agreement

News
By Jane McEntegart
published

A nice break from the he said, she said of Intel’s recent lawsuit with AMD is... Intel's he said, she said lawsuit with Nvidia. The latter has filed a counter-suit against Intel claiming a breach of contract.

In February Intel filed a lawsuit against Nvidia, which stated that the chipset license agreement the two companies signed four years ago does not extend to Intel’s future generation CPUs with integrated memory controllers.

"The disagreement is over the fact that they (Intel) don't believe we have the right to design chipsets for CPUs with integrated memory controllers, which we do," said Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang at the time. "Nvidia entered into an agreement in 2004 in order to bring platform innovations to Intel CPU based systems, and in return, Intel took a license to our rich portfolio of 3D, GPU, and other computing patents."

Reuters today reported that Nvidia is claiming that Intel has “manufactured” the licensing dispute as part of a “calculated strategy to eliminate Nvidia as a competitive threat.” According to Reuters, Nvidia believes Intel made misleading statements designed to undermine Nvidia's licensing rights and the counter-suit “seeks to terminate Intel's license to Nvidia's patents related to graphics processing and three-dimensional computing.” Reuters goes on to cite Nvidia spokesman Hector Marinez as saying Nvidia believes that without a licensing agreement, Intel's line of integrated graphics chips violate Nvidia's patent portfolio.

Previous reports say that the two have been fighting over this for a while. Huang said last month that Nvidia has been attempting to resolve the disagreement with Intel in a fair and reasonable manner for over a year. Huang also claimed that Nvidia’s Ion platform was what triggered the hostile action.

Jane McEntegart
24 Comments Comment from the forums
  • LATTEH
    wow...
    Reply
  • Dreasconse
    This almost makes me want Intel to fail.
    Reply
  • deltatux
    This is stupid, and if we learn from history many times before. Any organization or countries who tries to fight two enemies at once, is that they usually fail. Look at Nazi Germany. They were fighting the Russians and the rest of the Allies.

    So it is stupid for Intel to do this and this makes consumers lose confidence in them. I already lost all confidence in Intel. The only systems that run Intel in my household are desktop. Only laptops have Intel chips now.
    Reply
  • ohim
    well intel fanboys look at what you take side ... if you take nvidia/amd away you`re so beloved Intel will soon skyrocket everyprice from now on.
    Reply
  • Aerobernardo
    Some AMD's chicks just do not have a memory... The Clawhammer (Athlon FX57 remember?) Was just as expensive as Intel is now. Take the lead and kill our pockets. Amd isn't a saint for god's sake!!! And once again: I OWN AN OPTERON! And I own it not because I fell it's the right thing to do for the world, but because it wasf damm fast and furious in S939. If AMD can't do it once again don't count on me
    Reply
  • sacre
    ohimwell intel fanboys look at what you take side ... if you take nvidia/amd away you`re so beloved Intel will soon skyrocket everyprice from now on.
    People didn't know. I was an AMD fan, but their ability to make good CPU's basically died so I went Intel for better performance. Now Intel is being a real bitch, I regret my purchase for that reason, but it still gives me good performance, so I'm not going to stop purchasing good products.

    Intel "Fanboys" deserve NO bashing, at all, they did not make Intel become such a bitchy place. They did not cause Intel to try and kick all other companies away.

    So don't go trying to make them feel bad for their choice, their choice is purely logical.. Intel = faster CPU, Faster CPU = Better performance, Better performance = Happy
    Reply
  • MosportMike
    Intel keeps digging itself a bigger hole. With anti trust cases looming you would think they would settle this crap out of the view of the public. Thank god AMD has got their act together and is now run by competent people... I will never buy an Intel product ever again. Not a fanboy of either btw... I have both Intel and AMD rigs.
    Reply
  • radnor
    Honestly i am an AMD fanboy, for one reason only.

    I could count on AMD so i can build a cheap enough rig, or a fast enough rig (bang fer buck). Last Intel i had was a 2xXeon 2.8Ghz. It was really stable, but not fast.

    I still consider them very good CPUs, but honestly, i prefer to spend 150€ on a PII 720 and Crossfire soemthing. Or get that 8Gb of Ram. We are all under budget mates. Well some of us are.

    My next build will be an AMD, not because Intel does it worse, btu because for the price point and total shiny things offered, AMD gets my buck.

    But Intel has been a real bitch lately. I would like Nvidia make them pass a hard time. And AMD/ATI for that matter. Intel is already big, doesn't need to push nobody around.
    Reply
  • vh1atomicpunk
    Competitors are going to trash talk and attempt to dominate the competition at every turn. Nvidia forcing the purchase of a hardware bridge to enable SLI on third party chipsets (when not physically necessary to run SLI) is an example. AMD lobbying trade commissions to bring anti-trust suits against Intel is another. And Intel attempting to disallow future Nvidia chipsets for their CPU's is another. All these companies are doing it, and they all do it to attempt to gain an edge over the others. What's new or different here? Let the courts decided the B.S. Go with who offers the best package for your needs.
    Reply
  • ph3412b07
    when it comes down to it, the semiconductor industry needs competition. Intel obviously doesn't have a great track record when it comes to business ethics. You get the nice clean fabs in California, then go to third world countries and see another side of Intel factories. Anyway, my point is that competition breeds innovation and price cuts.
    Reply