Samsung Seeks Broad US Ban On NVIDIA Products

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The patent lawsuits between NVIDIA and Samsung just got kicked into high gear. :eek:

Samsung Electronics is attempting to bar a huge swath of Nvidia products from entering the United States, as part of an escalating legal battle between the two tech companies. In a complaint filed Friday with the US International Trade Commission, Samsung called on the federal agency to investigate Nvidia for what it says are violations of Samsung patents.
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What did Nvidia think was going to happen? Not that Samsung will be able to actually ban Nvidia products. The whole lawsuit is just stupid all together. Didn't Nvidia watch the lawsuits between Samsung and Apple?
 
Correct me if I'm wrong, but a patent violation is a civil tort and whether or not someone has violated it is often subjective and a matter of interpretation.

It is not the role of the US government to determine whether company A is infringing on a patent issued to company B. That is for the courts to decide.

Maybe the international nature of the dispute is such that the USTC can get involved but I don't see how anything less than a court ruling can establish infringement.

I prefer Nvidia and Samsung products generally so I wish they would just settle up and move on because as a customer, I'm the one who will be paying the bill.
 
Well, Samsung lawyers are probably pretty well versed in tech patents by now and have had plenty of practice with Apple.

Now why nvidia chose to go kick the hornet's nest is intriguing. Going to be interesting to see how this will be played out.
 
Well obviously there will be no injunction against nVidias stuff (at least not a permanent one, although I'd be SURPRISED to see any at all) -- what will most likely come out of this is a licensing agreement where nVidia pays samsung somehow. Funnily enough, this comes at a time where Samsung could use a little bit of extra cash... Hrmmm we'll see how this goes...
 
Yakk said:
Now why nvidia chose to go kick the hornet's nest is intriguing. Going to be interesting to see how this will be played out.
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Nvidia's Tegra isn't penetrating the market as well as they had hoped for. Remember they're suing Samsung and Qualcomm. These two companies are probably the reason Tegra is rarely appearing in products.

Nvidia is essentially crying foul while kicking and screaming like a child. The smart thing for Nvidia to do is make their own phones. If they made phones with built in gamepads for cheap then they stand a chance of pushing Qualcomm and Samsung into submission. As it stands Qualcomm and Samsung have too much to lose to a company like Nvidia who at this point will be fine eating license fees from both companies.
 
Endlessly trading patent lawsuits seems to be tech-business 101 these days. There might be a need for a little patent reform.
 
Yakk said:
Well, Samsung lawyers are probably pretty well versed in tech patents by now and have had plenty of practice with Apple.

Now why nvidia chose to go kick the hornet's nest is intriguing. Going to be interesting to see how this will be played out.
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They kicked the bees nest because there is a lot of honey there. Samsung has made a lot of money in the mobile market. If they are infringing then Nvidia will get paid.
 
Unless I missed something, the lawsuit doesn't mention Asus. Makes me wonder why....
 
bacon said:
They kicked the bees nest because there is a lot of honey there. Samsung has made a lot of money in the mobile market. If they are infringing then Nvidia will get paid.
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As will Samsung. What usually happens is that the two companies share certain patents from their portfolio to make it "right". If one party is a lot more "guilty" than the other, then one might collect some royalties and force the other to pay the legal bills.

Alternative Tin foil hat time says that Nvidia wanted GSYNC on Samsung monitors, but Samsung went with AMD FreeSync instead. So instead of working out a deal, Nvidia got litigious to force their hand a bit. The aluminum foil is strong with this one, but stranger things have happened in the past.
 
Man...can't these companies do something other then sue one another? FFS, it's the same story damn near every day now...X sues Y, Y counter-sues X and Z; in the end, nothing happens with the lawsuits. Both companies settle, cross-license, or do some other bullshit legal trickery to not admit fault but end the suit. Finally, the lawyers rake in oodles of cash for the equivalent of legal system masturbation...what a fracking waste.
 
nvidia is going to win this one. Samsungs position is incredibily weak. there best bet is that qualcom is going to be hit with breach and not themselves, but with the 3dfx and geforce 1 and 2 patents, nvidia is extremely strong in this area.
 
cageymaru said:
As will Samsung. What usually happens is that the two companies share certain patents from their portfolio to make it "right". If one party is a lot more "guilty" than the other, then one might collect some royalties and force the other to pay the legal bills.

Alternative Tin foil hat time says that Nvidia wanted GSYNC on Samsung monitors, but Samsung went with AMD FreeSync instead. So instead of working out a deal, Nvidia got litigious to force their hand a bit. The aluminum foil is strong with this one, but stranger things have happened in the past.
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Somehow I don't think it has anything to do with GSYNC or Freesync... Samsung has millions of phones and tablets in the marketplace that Nvidia believes are infringing on their patents. Imagine the royalties they could earn if Samsung loses this case. That is what CFOs look at when deliberating over whether to sue someone or not. Not over some grudge match over a niche market chip that Samsung chose over their's.
 
ondaedg said:
Somehow I don't think it has anything to do with GSYNC or Freesync... Samsung has millions of phones and tablets in the marketplace that Nvidia believes are infringing on their patents. Imagine the royalties they could earn if Samsung loses this case. That is what CFOs look at when deliberating over whether to sue someone or not. Not over some grudge match over a niche market chip that Samsung chose over their's.
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Nividia was smart about this. the major breaching party is qualcom. so what nivida did was bring it to samsungs attention. samsung felt that qualcom should pay, however by continuing to use qualcolm products in the two years after being notified of the breach, they left themselves open.
 
ondaedg said:
Somehow I don't think it has anything to do with GSYNC or Freesync... Samsung has millions of phones and tablets in the marketplace that Nvidia believes are infringing on their patents. Imagine the royalties they could earn if Samsung loses this case. That is what CFOs look at when deliberating over whether to sue someone or not. Not over some grudge match over a niche market chip that Samsung chose over their's.
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Thing I don't get is what patents? Qualcomm owns Adreno which they bought from ATI years ago. Samsung makes Exynos which ranges from PowerVR to ARM Mali graphics. PowerVR being Imagination and Mali being made by ARM. So what exactly is Nvidia after?
 
ikarinokami said:
Nividia was smart about this. the major breaching party is qualcom. so what nivida did was bring it to samsungs attention. samsung felt that qualcom should pay, however by continuing to use qualcolm products in the two years after being notified of the breach, they left themselves open.
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And like I posted Nvidia will get paid. Twice.
 
Ashbringer said:
Nvidia's Tegra isn't penetrating the market as well as they had hoped for. Remember they're suing Samsung and Qualcomm. These two companies are probably the reason Tegra is rarely appearing in products.

Nvidia is essentially crying foul while kicking and screaming like a child. The smart thing for Nvidia to do is make their own phones. If they made phones with built in gamepads for cheap then they stand a chance of pushing Qualcomm and Samsung into submission. As it stands Qualcomm and Samsung have too much to lose to a company like Nvidia who at this point will be fine eating license fees from both companies.
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Yeah, Nvidia shot themselves in the foot with Tegra 2, by under delivering on the design wins they had... Phone companies must have lost quite a bit of money for them not to want to talk to nvidia again since.

Ashbringer said:
Thing I don't get is what patents? Qualcomm owns Adreno which they bought from ATI years ago. Samsung makes Exynos which ranges from PowerVR to ARM Mali graphics. PowerVR being Imagination and Mali being made by ARM. So what exactly is Nvidia after?
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Yup, Qualcomm buying Imageon from ATI for next to nothing was a Superb acquisition for them. It took a while, but now Imageon/Adreno has been, and still is, paying off Huge for them. I would think nvidia is angry at being stuck paying Qualcomm's on-chip modem licensing fees which are reported to be quite high. Speculating, if anything this is what nvidia might be hoping to barter with their gpu patent card. Still, the ATI patents Qualcomm bought should be quite solid. Suing Samsung might only be a by-product of trying to go after Qualcomm, quite a web to untangle.
 
It's time we get rid of patents, and actually let companies do what is best for the consumer: Compete. Screw this idea that only 1 company can use a concept.
 
DoubleTap said:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but a patent violation is a civil tort and whether or not someone has violated it is often subjective and a matter of interpretation.

It is not the role of the US government to determine whether company A is infringing on a patent issued to company B. That is for the courts to decide.
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A civil tort is used to determine if a product is in violation and award damages, however, the United States International Trade Commission (USITC) can make its own determination for import enforcement.

If the USITC conducts an investigation on IP infringement related to an import it can block that product from being imported ONLY. It cannot issue damages to the violated party.

Samsung famously got Apple products banned by the ITC in 2013 and it took an executive veto to allow Apple to continue importing iPhones/iPads.

Apple then did the same to Samsung would couldn't get a veto and their products were banned from importing.
 
Considering Samsung is the most popular Android brand on the market, this is going to kick Nvidia in the nuts. I love my HTC One M8 but I know almost all my friends have Samsung devices. Nvidia is run but moronic CEO's.
 
If you mess with my GPU makers (AMD or NVidia) I wont buy your products. EVER!
 
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