Samsung does not infringe Nvidia graphics chip patents: U.S. ITC

By Andrew Chung NEW YORK (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co Ltd has been cleared of using graphics chip technology owned by Nvidia Corp without permission, according to a ruling by a U.S. International Trade Commission judge on Friday. Judge Thomas Pender said Samsung did not infringe two Nvidia patents, and while it did infringe a third, he ruled that patent is invalid because it was not a new invention compared with previously known patents. Santa Clara, California-based Nvidia filed a complaint against Samsung and Qualcomm at the ITC in September, 2014. At the same time, Nvidia sued the companies in federal court in Wilmington, Delaware. The ITC has the authority to stop the import of products that it determines infringe a U.S. patent. Companies frequently sue at the ITC to win an import ban and in district court to win damages. Nvidia, which said it invented the first graphics processing chip and released it in 1999, accused Korea's Samsung and San Diego-based Qualcomm of using its patents on graphics chip technology without permission or compensation. Nvidia alleged the companies infringed its patents with Qualcomm's Snapdragon processors and Samsung's Exynos processors and was seeking to prevent the import of several Samsung products, including its Galaxy smartphones and tablets. (Reporting by Andrew Chung; Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Alan Crosby)