Samsung tries to stop Nvidia chips entering the US market

Samsung Electronic Co. filed a complaint against Nvidia Corp. as it tries to stop the Santa Clara-based technology company’s computer graphic chips from entering the US market, after licensing talks failed.

The complaint was filed on Thursday with the US International Trade Commission in Washington.

In September, Nvidia filed an ITC complaint against Samsung and Qualcomm Inc. over patented ways to improve graphics. It asked the International Trade Commission to block the imports of the latest Galaxy phone/tablets that use Samsung’s Axynos processors or Qualcomm’s Snapdragon graphics processing units.

In November, Samsung responded with a patent-infringement suit in federal court in Richmond, Virginia, claiming that Nvidia and one of its customers had infringed eight patents. The complaint was directed at Nvidia’s Shield tablet computers.

Both Nvidia and Samsung say they have not used each other’s technology.

Samsung’s latest complaint also mentions Elitegroup Computer Systems Co. and Biostar Microtech International Corp.

Improved GPUs (graphics processing units) are becoming increasingly more important as more users use smartphones and tablets for watching movies and playing games.

According to the Agency’s website, the complaint, the complaint reference is filed as follows:

“Letter to Lisa R. Barton, Secretary, USITC; requesting that the Commission conduct an investigation under section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended, regarding Certain Graphics Processing Chips, Systems on a Chip. and Products Containing the Same. The proposed respondents are: NVIDIA Corporation, Santa Clara, California; Biostar Microtech International Corp.. Taiwan; Biostar Microtech (U.S.A.) Corp., City of Industry, California; Elitegroup Computer Systems Co. Ltd., Taiwan; Elitegroup Computer Systems, Inc., Newark, California; EVGA Corp., Brea, California; Fuhu, Inc., El Segundo, California; Jaton Corp., Fremont, California; Mad Catz, Inc., San Diego, California; OUYA, Inc., Santa Monica, California; Sparkle Computer Co., Ltd., Taiwan; Toradex, Inc., Seattle, Washington; Wikipad, Inc., Westlake Village, California; ZOTAC International (MCO) Ltd., Hong Kong; ZOTAC USA, Inc., Chino, California.”

According to Bloomberg, Nvidia says it can make no comment at the moment because it has not yet seen the complaint. It added that it will “look forward to pursuing our earlier filed ITC action against Samsung products.”