NVidia sues 3dFx!

[Vlip]

I'm really getting tired off all that law suit thingy. Are we going to see another Creative-Aureal lawsuit?

http://www.avault.com/news/displaynews.asp?story=8282000-192145

Vlip

[lindberg]

If they steal a patent they should be sued! BUT, If they've figured out a good way to icrease the performance of their product they shouldn't be sued for just because nVidia thinks that they're the only ones who know how to make graphicscards...

[Maggi]

... which company was it again that supported Glide without having the permission by 3dfx ???

[lindberg]

Yeah, that's the spirit!

[Joel]

Just another way of trying to stop the competition. Of course they can't go after Matrox because they, nVidia, stole the dual head deal.

Joel

[Jeff]

Did you read the list of infringements? I think nVidia thinks that they invented solder.

[cjolley]

It sounds to me like they are trying to patent the MOVS instruction from the i8086.

What do you want to bet they don't try to inforce this BS against anyone (eg. Intel) big enough to defend themselves?

NVidia is taking a lesson in bad citizenship from RamBus.

chuck

[Vlip]

Exactly what I thought when I read those patents.

[Himself]

The US patent office should be revamped with a nuke. The computer industry will grind to a halt if silly things like burst modes to a single address are patented.

Think I'll patent the use of voltage levels to indicate binary logic and sue everybody. I'm sure the patent office would allow it.

[Taz]

If Nvidia are so concerned with these alleged patent violations why have they allowed three generations of products to be produced by 3dfx before taking action? They could have sued 3dfx when the Voodoo 3 was announced and had the market all to themselves. Surely the last infringement would cover all 3d accelerators, does that mean they are also going to sue ATI, S3, Matrox, Trident, Sony, Sega, Nintendo.....

[Vlip]

The patent that looks really odd for me is this one:
"Method and apparatus for accelerating the rendering of images"

What does that really mean?

Vlip

[lindberg]

Sounds like a general thing, In my opinion it would be just the same as if Microsoft would have a patent printer drivers, and they'll sue HP for making drivers for their printers...
Silly!

[dZeus]

http://messages.yahoo.com/bbs?.mm=FN&action=m&board=4687932&tid=tdfx&sid=4687932&mid=45125

and the comment on this by Kyle Bennet from HardOCP:

OK. I have been kicking around some ideas here about NVIDIA suing 3dfx. This is pure speculation on my part, and I can be pretty stoopid sometimes, so take that into consideration if you read this.

To my knowledge, and I may get some specifics wrong, but the gist of the story will be the same. NVIDIA was sued by 3dfx, SGI, and S3 back in 98. Here is one guy's opinion here that mentions these suits. Cards from the TNT to the GF2 Ultra, have all used the scheme when it comes to multitexturing. If 3dfx won their lawsuit, NVIDIA would have to pay "royalties" to 3dfx for all those cards sold. Now SGI and S3 settled out of court and that made everything better. 3dfx has NOT settled and thinks (my opinion) that they have a solid case against NVIDIA for patent infringement. I think NVIDIA is kicking up some dust to try to give them a little leverage on backing 3dfx into a corner, pushing them to settle. Remember, just a guess on my part.

[Snake-Eyes]

It may all end up becoming a non-issue if 3dfx doesn't start making some money.

------------------
Ace

[Vlip]

C'est tout le mal que je leur souhaite!

In fact I would not like 3dfx to drown, Nvidia would almost be alone on the market if 3dfx dies! And I find they are enough monopols in this industry right now.