Published in Graphics

Nvidia and Samsung settle IP Litigation

by on03 May 2016


Details unknown

Nvidia was confident that it could pressure Samsung and Qualcomm into some kind of licensing dea and started a legal battle in September 2014. However not it appears that the battle is over and with a disappointing result.  

Nvidia didn’t want to discuss any further details and all the company is saying at this time the agreement  covers the licensing of a small number of patents by each company to another, but no broad cross-licensing of patents or other compensation. "

When it all started in September 2014, Nvidia was after Samsung and Qualcomm claiming they had breached United States Patent Nos. 6,198,488, 6,992,667, 7,038,685, 7,015,913, 6,697,063, 7,209,140 and 6,690,372.

These patents were allegedly used in now ancient Qualcomm Snapdragon S4, 400, 600 or 800 series of processors, and devices such as the Samsung Galaxy Note 4, Galaxy Note Edge, Galaxy S5, Galaxy Note 3 (LTE), Galaxy S4, and Galaxy S III and the Samsung Note Pro LTE, Galaxy Tab 4, and Galaxy Tab 3 tablet.

For ages, Nvidia only mentioned Samsung in the lawsuit and stopped talking about Qualcomm. In September 2015 judge ruled that Samsung and Qualcomm actually didn’t infringe two of the patents.

The outcome of this multimillion legal battle was not as lucrative as the licensing deal with Intel. Nvidia appears to have  wanted to replace the $1.5 billion it received from the Intel cross licensing agreement, which is about to expire. Since January 2011 Intel agreed to pay Nvidia $1.5 billion and Chipzilla has almost paid up. Nvidia probably hoped to get the licensing money from Samsung too. Even if the deal means that Nvidia will end up getting some financial compensation, it won't be as exciting the Intel one from 2011.

Last modified on 03 May 2016
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