NVIDIA And Rambus Move On With Patent License Agreement
NVIDIA has a history of picking bones with companies. They've created quite a riff between themselves and Intel, for example, and their CEO is one of the least reserved in the entire tech industry. If he feels like saying something, he'll say it. We like the bravado, but it has put the company into awkward spots before.
One long standing disagreement that eventually went to the courtroom is one between NVIDIA and Rambus. This week though, the companies have agreed to put their differences aside in an effort to move on and move forward. They have agreed to sign a patent license agreement related to certain memory controllers, and under those agreements Rambus has granted NVIDIA a patent license for certain memory controllers at a 1 percent royalty rate for SDR memory controllers and a 2 percent royalty rate for other memory controllers, including DDR, DDR2, DDR3, LPDDR, LPDDR2, GDDR2, GDDR3, GDDR4, and portions of GDDR5 memory controllers. It's worth noting that NVIDIA has granted no licenses to Rambus. The full release is below.
One long standing disagreement that eventually went to the courtroom is one between NVIDIA and Rambus. This week though, the companies have agreed to put their differences aside in an effort to move on and move forward. They have agreed to sign a patent license agreement related to certain memory controllers, and under those agreements Rambus has granted NVIDIA a patent license for certain memory controllers at a 1 percent royalty rate for SDR memory controllers and a 2 percent royalty rate for other memory controllers, including DDR, DDR2, DDR3, LPDDR, LPDDR2, GDDR2, GDDR3, GDDR4, and portions of GDDR5 memory controllers. It's worth noting that NVIDIA has granted no licenses to Rambus. The full release is below.
Rambus and NVIDIA Sign Patent License Agreement
Agreement Covers Memory Controllers for Certain DRAM
LOS ALTOS, Calif. & SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Rambus Inc. (NASDAQ:RMBS), one of the world’s premier technology licensing companies, and NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA), the worldwide leader in visual computing, today announced they have signed a patent license agreement related to certain memory controllers.
Under the agreement, Rambus has granted NVIDIA a patent license for certain memory controllers at a 1 percent royalty rate for SDR memory controllers and a 2 percent royalty rate for other memory controllers, including DDR, DDR2, DDR3, LPDDR, LPDDR2, GDDR2, GDDR3, GDDR4, and portions of GDDR5 memory controllers. NVIDIA has granted no licenses to Rambus.
The signed patent license agreement went into effect on August 12, 2010. The parties have not signed any releases of liability, nor dismissed any outstanding litigation between them.
The terms of the license are per the agreement that Rambus offers as part of its commitment with the European Commission. A sample of the Memory Controller License Agreement is available at www.rambus.com/licensing.
