Rambus sues NVIDIA over patent infringement

As if NVIDIA wasn't in enough hot water already, reports have high-speed memory interface maker Rambus Inc. suing the graphics chip maker over patent infringements. The lawsuit, filed in a Nothern District of California court, implies NVIDIA's memory controllers for SDR, DDR, DDR2, DDR3, GDDR and GDDR3 SDRAM infringe upon 17 Rambus patents.

The lawsuit says a minimum of six NVIDIA product lines that encompass chipsets, graphics processors, media communication processors and multimedia applications processors use patented technology from Rambus without a license agreement. Rambus executives go on to say their company has unsuccessfully attempted to work out a licensing agreement with NVIDIA over more than the last six years. As technology gets more advanced, the plaintiff claims that NVIDIA will infringe upon more Rambus patents. Despite the lawsuit, NVIDIA hopes to reach a negotiated settlement, Rambus executives say.

While specifics in terms of the amount of monetary compensation Rambus is seeking were not disclosed, what is known is that an injunctive relief is sought, and Rambus is claiming contributory infringement and inducement to infringe.

This isn't the first time Rambus took legal action, as it sued Hynix back in March over similar infringements.

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