Samsung Electronics didn’t violate graphic chip patents of NVIDIA: ITC ruling

Samsung Electronics didn’t violate graphic chip patents of NVIDIA: ITC ruling

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Samsung Electronics Co Ltd is not accountable for making use of graphic chip technology possessed by NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) without authorisation, according to a verdict by U.S. International Trade Commission on Friday.

Judge Thomas B. Pender ruled that the smartphone maker didn’t infringe two out of three patents filed by NVDA, while it infringed the third one but the patent is invalid as it was not a new invention.

NVIDIA claims that it invented the very first graphics processing SoC back in 1999. It blamed Samsung and Qualcomm of making use of its patents without consent or compensation.

The decision is a blow to NVDA’s struggle to prove that the South Korean tech giant illegally took advantage of its technology. In case the ruling was in favour of Nvidia, Samsung may had to face a ban on some of its products including Galaxy S5, Galaxy Note Edge and Galaxy Note 4.

The Santa Clara, California-based company primarily filed the complaint against Samsung Electronics and Qualcomm, involving seven of its patents, at the ITC in September last year. The ITC is authorized to ban imports of devices that are found to infringe on a U.S. patent.

Samsung has been using Qualcomm’s semiconductor processors in a number of its high-end gadgets, whereas using Exynos chips in others such as the Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6. The disputed processors refer to Adreno GPU of Qualcomm, Mali technology of ARM Holdings, and Imagination’s PowerVR graphics, which are the three major rivals of Nvidia in the segment.

It is evident that Nvidia approached ITC in order to address the issue quickly, as civil suits can take several years to reach an outcome.

Samsung also took an offensive stance and countersued NVDA in November last year alleging patent infringement. The South Korean company also sued one of NVDA’s customers.

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I cover technology, utilities and biotechnology for Markets Morning, and I help out occasionally with other industry sectors. I've written about investment and personal finance topics for more than 20 years from a lowly copywriter to editor-in-chief, so I've done a little bit of everything. For what it's worth, I have a BA from Duke University and an MBA from Rollins College. I'm married with one daughter, and that's worth more than everything else put together.

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