Nvidia Found Guilty of Infringing Rambus Patents
Rambus rolls on with its memory technology patents.
In summer 2008, Rambus claimed that "a number of Nvidia products" with memory controllers for SDR, DDR, DDR2, DDR3, GDDR, and GDDR3 SDRAM infringe upon 17 Rambus patents, leading to the expected lawsuit.
Last Friday, the U.S. International Trade Commission ruled that Nvidia violated three of five patents held by Rambus which could lead to a possible U.S. ban on the import of some Nvidia products.
"We will continue to vigorously protect our patented inventions for the benefit of our shareholders and in fairness to our paying licensees," said Rambus General Counsel Tom Lavelle. "We would be interested in having productive settlement discussions with Nvidia."
Nvidia, expectedly, isn't so eager to set up any sort of payment schedule. According to Reuters, Nvidia is waiting for a decision from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office later this year on whether or not Rambus has full claim to some of the patents involved in the current dispute with Nvidia. If Rambus is found to not have full claim, it would change the outcome of the ITC's ruling considerably.
"We're going to continue to take the necessary steps to move forward with our arguments, not necessarily just with the ITC, but certainly in the Patent and Trademark Office," said David Shannon, Nvidia general counsel.
News of this comes just after Rambus' $900 million settlement with Samsung over patent disagreements.
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two for two on Patent trolling
the hits just keep on coming for nvidia. whats next? a sex tape?!!!
Wow, talk about kicking someone when they are down. This is just what nVidia needs. No competitive products, problems with production runs, and the possible inability to make a new mobile chip. And now this.
Wonder what these bans will be for?
Oh and, why do the courts take Rambus seriously? They've sued damn near everyone.
Rambus is getting everyone by the balls these days.
they sued me even =(
Nvidia is finished bro.
1. No Fermi (1.7% and all the rest of it)
2. Rambus
3. ATI already have their next gen DX11 cards out
4. By the time Fermi is released ATI will have the 6000 series cards.
It truly is over. Nvidia is dead.
900 Million from Samsung no wonder they are suing haha.
Rambus just sued the shit out of Nvidia
You think this won't delay Fermi?
Well at least rambus aren't bullshitters
"patented inventions for the benefit of our shareholders"
Not sure if green is dead, but they are in a lot of hot water... maybe they can open up some of there gpu patents to third parties? licensing out in demand technology would help keep nvidia by siphoning competitor sales. its just an idea though doubt they would licence out anything worth while.
(again probably not going to happen) but it would make for a company that could really lock intel out of the graphics game for a LOOOONNNGGG Time.
better yet how bout a merger with AMD/ATI
Nvidia is finished bro.1. No Fermi (1.7% and all the rest of it)2. Rambus3. ATI already have their next gen DX11 cards out4. By the time Fermi is released ATI will have the 6000 series cards.It truly is over. Nvidia is dead.
You're so friggin' stupid it hurts.
Envydia status:
[X] TOLD
[ ] NOT TOLD
Japanese fermi cooking itself at 300TDP
Japanese fermi cooking itself at 300TDP
That's enough to power a 5970; a dual GPU card
Well at least rambus aren't bullshitters"patented inventions for the benefit of our shareholders"
There's a difference between patenting your company's legitimate tech invention portfolio and using submarine patents hoping the day comes you can profit on it.
What rambus is doing is purely patent trolling and they didn't even invent that.
The only reason I can think of why it's still not illegal is because they haven't pissed off a big enough fish as of yet.
Yay for Rambus (sarcasm). More importantly, I hate the U.S. technology and software patent system.
better yet how bout a merger with AMD/ATI (again probably not going to happen) but it would make for a company that could really lock intel out of the graphics game for a LOOOONNNGGG Time.
The day after the ATI and NVidia fuse graphic cards will increase in price with rebranded names. After all where else would you buy video cards anyway.
You're so friggin' stupid it hurts.
How so? If Rambus has full claim on those patents they are going to get hundreds of millions of dollars and they could demand Nvidia stop importing any RAM that infringe on those patents. Will it come to that? Of course not, but Nvidia is going to have to pay some hefty licensing fees from here on out unless they can make their RAM that use the Rambus patents. Is Nvidia going to fold? Nah I doubt it but instead of calling someone stupid why not contribute something to the forum? You're the only one that looks stupid.
Yet another example of why we need patent reform and the elimination of patent trolls. Especially patent trolls whom advise people to use a new standard where they secretly hold a bunch of patents they hope to use further on down the road to make lots of money.
Rambus - Your license to sue. TM
Rambus just sued the shit out of NvidiaYou think this won't delay Fermi?
Watch this cause Fermi not to be released at all. Hell, Fermi probably uses some of the Rambus patents and stopping production could be part of the settlement for all we know!
Watch this cause Fermi not to be released at all. Hell, Fermi probably uses some of the Rambus patents and stopping production could be part of the settlement for all we know!
They could possibly license it if they're into production already. It would provide them a way to get their cards out in a timely way, even if they do have to pay licensing fees. Which may be a better solution (financially) than going back to the drawing board. Fermi is already late with DX11, I can't imagine they want to rework it, if Fermi uses any Rambus technology for which Nvidia was found at fault for using.
At this rate we'll have DirectX12 and the ATI 7 series by the time Fermi hits market. lol
[citation]In summer 2008, Rambus claimed that "a number of Nvidia products" with memory controllers for SDR, DDR, DDR2, DDR3, GDDR, and GDDR3 SDRAM infringe upon 17 Rambus patents, leading to the expected lawsuit.[/citation]
Fermi uses GDDR5. This should not affect it. The lower end stuff that they keep rebranding that uses GDDR3 would be though.
Yet another example of why we need patent reform and the elimination of patent trolls. Especially patent trolls whom advise people to use a new standard where they secretly hold a bunch of patents they hope to use further on down the road to make lots of money.
Reform is the first step probably, but more and more I become convince that patent system should be abolished. I hope the majority of people recognize it before is too late.
They could possibly license it if they're into production already. It would provide them a way to get their cards out in a timely way, even if WE have to pay licensing fees.
FIXED
In my opinion, you are not late to the DirectX 11.0 game unless there is a game we all want to play in DirectX 11.0.
RAMBust are the most unethetical company in high tech. These assholes took technology that was being discussed in an open source forum and patented the technology and sued the people who developed the technology to begin with. These people are scoundrels and I hope that Nvidia wins their appeal.
rasmus and amd only make money in the courts,,,,lawyers figtht
And I remember back in the day when I was going away to college and Rambus released the 'new' RDRAM that was supposedly superior that I got in my pre-configured Dell. What a pain in the ass (and costly) that turned out to be when I wanted to upgrade 5 years later! Oh well, live and learn...not just on the RAM, but on the pre-built systems too,
FIXEDIn my opinion, you are not late to the DirectX 11.0 game unless there is a game we all want to play in DirectX 11.0.
I'm not paying for nVidia's cards anymore anyway, nor Rambus' patents.
The problem is the Rambus has patients on memory interfaces that were suppose to be open standards. The patients effect ATI as well.