Latest Samsung Volley vs. Nvidia Is New Patent Complaint Filed at ITC

Samsung filed a complaint Nov. 21 asking the International Trade Commission to ban imports of graphics processing chips from Nvidia and several other companies that allegedly infringe its patents. Nvidia’s Quadro, NVS, Tesla, GRID and GeForce line of graphics cards for computers, as well as several systems on a chip for tablets, copy its patented designs, Samsung said in the complaint. It's requesting a limited exclusion order and cease and desist order against Nvidia, plus several other companies that manufacture and export graphics cards and SoCs under contract with Nvidia, including Biostar, Elitegroup, EVGA, Fuhu, Jaton, Mad Catz, OUYA, Sparkle Computer, Toradex, Wikipad and ZOTAC. The ITC is asking for comments by Dec. 9 on public interest factors raised by Samsung’s complaint. Nvidia filed a similar complaint against Samsung in September (see 1410090095). Samsung retaliated, first with a patent infringement complaint against Nvidia filed Nov. 4 in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, and later with the Nov. 21 ITC complaint. The Nov. 4 complaint named Velocity Micro, which sources chips from Nvidia, as a co-defendant. Velocity, based in Richmond, Virginia, bills itself as an "independent American boutique builder of higher caliber computer systems," its CEO Randy Copeland said in a blog post in which he blasted the Samsung litigation in blunt terms. Samsung is "all too willing to throw a private company under the proverbial bus for their own strategic reasons," he said. "It’s simply wrong, and a shining example of what’s broken in big corporate America." Velocity is "a small private business" and has "absolutely nothing to do with the disputes between these business giants," Copeland said of Nvidia and Samsung. "This is not our fight, and it’s unconscionable that Samsung is willing to completely disregard the effects and financial fallout this legal tactic will have on the undeserving employees of Velocity Micro and our local community. ... If this is how Samsung operates, we want no part of it, and we hope others agree and consider this during this upcoming holiday shopping season." Samsung didn’t comment.