Rambus four drops patent claims vs. Nvidia

Nvidia has announced that Rambus has asked an administrative law judge at the International Trade Commission (ITC) to terminate the investigation of Nvidia relating to four patents stemming from a complaint filed in November 2008.

Rambus has conceded that Nvidia products do not infringe on its four patents before the ITC and also asked for termination of several claims from a fifth patent in the ITC action.

"We are pleased Rambus has recognized the weakness of these patents and claims," stated David Shannon, Nvidia executive VP and general counsel. "These withdrawals represent essentially half of the patents and one third of the claims asserted against us, and we look forward to addressing the remainder of the case."

The current ITC litigation originally included nine patents involving memory controllers related to graphics processors. On June 2, Nvidia publicly announced that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office had rejected 41 claims, in seven patents, which Rambus had asserted in the ITC action against Nvidia.