Rambus Withdraws Patents From NVIDIA Proceedings

by Marco Chiappetta — Monday, June 08, 2009, 01:04 PM EDT

Rambus Moves To Withdraw Patents From ITC Proceedings Against NVIDIA

SANTA CLARA, CA - JUNE 8, 2009 - NVIDIA today announced that Rambus has asked an administrative law judge at the International Trade Commission (ITC) to terminate the investigation of NVIDIA relating to four patents stemming from a complaint filed in November 2008. Rambus has conceded that NVIDIA products do not infringe on its four patents before the ITC, and has also asked for termination of several claims from a fifth patent in the ITC action.

“We are pleased Rambus has recognized the weakness of these patents and claims,” stated David Shannon, NVIDIA executive vice president and general counsel. “These withdrawals represent essentially half of the patents and one third of the claims asserted against us, and we look forward to addressing the remainder of the case.”

The current ITC litigation originally included nine patents involving memory controllers related to graphics processors. On June 2, 2009, NVIDIA publicly announced that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) had rejected 41 claims, in seven patents, which Rambus had asserted in the ITC action against NVIDIA.

Tags: Nvidia, RAMBUS, patents, ITC

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com