14 DAY TRIAL // We've seen our fair share of lawsuits in the technology field, some reasonable some so outlandish that we couldn't help but gawk (privately of course). We're having a bit of trouble classifying the one between Samsung and NVIDIA though.
Litigations are all over the place on the technology market. Samsung and Apple haven't stopped arguing over tablets for years, for example.
Earlier this month (November 2014), Samsung sued NVIDIA over alleged fixed benchmarks comparing Tegra K1 to Exynos 5433.
Now, a new complaint has been submitted by the former. Samsung has filed a motion with the US International Trade Commission to ban NVIDIA's GeForce graphics chips and Tegra mobile processors.
The nature of the complaint
The dispute names a number of third-party device makers that would have to stop selling hardware in the United States. Most of them are video card makers (Biostar and EVGA), but not all (OUYA, Wikipad).
The accusation against NVIDIA is that the Santa Clara-based outfit infringed several of Samsung's chip-related patents and made false claims about its products.
Interestingly enough, NVIDIA was the one that actually started this patent war. Samsung may have started the motion regarding Tegra k1 benchmarks (mentioned above), but that was after NVIDIA took Qualcomm to court and dragged Samsung along for the ride.
The bottom line is that NVIDIA wants a bunch of tablets and smartphones banned, while Samsung wants GeForce GPUs and Tegra SoCs equally banned from being imported in the United States. The litigation could spill over into other parts of the world sooner or later.
What this means for the rest of us
Not much in the near term. While they argue in front of the judge and/or jury about whether or not the other should be allowed to go about their business, NVIDIA and Samsung will go about their business.
It is very unlikely that either side will gain any sort of victory over the other. Almost all patent wars like this one usually conclude with an out-of-court settlement. And even if Samsung wins, NVIDIA will never stop making GPUs and SoCs. Worst case scenario is that current-gen processors are banned and NVIDIA just makes new ones. Said new ones may or may not become the cause of another lawsuit, starting the whole circus again.
In any event, it will be months or years before a decision is made, by which time NVIDIA will already have new processors for sale, which aren't subject to the lawsuit.
