In a prepared statement, Rambus’ head legal counsel, Tom Lavelle, said that Rambus has been attempting to get Nvidia to purchase a license for the patents, and the suit was the last resort. However, he said, Rambus hopes to settle the issue out of court.
The Los Altos, Calif.-based company says that chipsets, graphics processers, and media communication processors across six different Nvidia product lines are illegally infringing. The patents held concern memory controllers for SDR, DDR, DDR2, DDR3, GDDR, and GDDR3 SDRAM.
CNET News is waiting to hear back from Nvidia for comment.
Rambus is suing Nvidia, accusing the company of violating 17 Rambus-held patents on memory controllers. The suit was filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
Rambus is asking the court for an injunction (which would stop Nvidia from selling the products at issue), as well as monetary damages.