Rambus is no stranger to the world of patent infringement suits. Today it
announced that it filed a patent infringement suit against NVIDIA in the United
States District Court for the Northern District of California.
The suit alleges that NVIDIA infringed upon Rambus patents with a variety of
its products including NVIDIA products with memory controllers for SDR, DDR,
DDR2, DDR3, GDDR, and GDDR3 SDRAM. In all Rambus alleges
that NVIDIA has infringed on 17 Rambus patents.
Rambus said that it pursued licensing agreements with NVIDIA for years with
no agreements being made. Rambus wants injunctive relief barring further
infringement, contributory infringement, and inducement to infringe the patents
in question. Rambus also seeks monetary damages for the alleged infringement.
Tam Lavelle, senior VP and general counsel for Rambus said, “For more than
six years, we have diligently attempted to negotiate a licensing agreement with
NVIDIA, but our good faith efforts have been to no avail. Graphics and
multimedia products require leading-edge memory performance, and as NVIDIA
advances its product portfolio, it infringes more and more of our patents. We
are left with no other recourse than litigation to protect and seek fair
compensation for the use of our patented inventions. Nevertheless, we hope to
continue discussions with NVIDIA to reach a negotiated settlement.”
According to Rambus, the vast majority of NVIDIA products going back for
years infringed on its patents. If NVIDIA loses the suit in court it could be
looking at a significant penalty, possibly ever more than the $306.9 million.
NVIDIA is already feeling pressure from investors and analysts after
announcing disappointing
profits last quarter, a loss in this case could make things even worse.