Nvidia Loses Patent Claim Against Samsung, Qualcomm

Visual computing tech company Nvidia Corp has lost its patent battle against Samsung Electronics Co and Qualcomm Inc as the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) decided not to review an initial order by an administrative law judge on Oct. 9 as it found no violation of Nvidia's patents related to graphics processing chips.

Judge Thomas Pender had said that while Samsung did not infringe two Nvidia patents, it did infringe a third, but it was invalid because it was not a new invention compared with previously known patents, Reuters reported.

Santa Clara-based Nvidia said it invented the first graphics processing chip and released it in 1999. It accused Samsung and Qualcomm of using its patents on graphics chip technology for Exynos processors and Snapdragon processors respectively, without permission or compensation. Nvidia was seeking to prevent the import of several Samsung products, including its Galaxy smartphones and tablets.

"We remain firm in our belief that our patents are valid and have been infringed and will look to appeal the ITC’s decision," Nvidia said in a blog post on Monday.

Samsung said that Nvidia was trying to claim old ideas regarding desktop computers cover new products as none of its chips are used in smartphones, as reported by Bloomberg. It argued that even if Nvidia’s patents were infringed, the inventions relate to “very specific and narrow aspects of graphics processing” and that it would need at least six months to switch to newer models without disrupting the market.

“Nvidia’s fundamental problem is that none of its patents are directed to modern mobile technology, no matter how hard it tries to stretch the claims,” Samsung said. “We are very pleased that the ITC came to the right and just conclusion that we did nothing wrong”.