Samsung Files US Trade Commission Complaint To Block NVIDIA Chips And 3rd Party Manufacturers

In a continuation of the legal battle between NVIDIA and Samsung, the latter company has just filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission to block sales of NVIDIA's SHIELD Tablet on the basis that it infringes on its patents.

This legal battle began this past September, when NVIDIA sued both Samsung and Qualcomm for infringing on its graphics IP. At that time, NVIDIA requested that Samsung's Galaxy phones and tablets be blocked from being sold. Earlier this month, Samsung struck back, counter-suing NVIDIA and also adding a seemingly innocent boutique vendor in the mix, Velocity Micro. As Velocity Micro doesn't have a part in the design of the NVIDIA products it installs in customer's PCs, if it's guilty, so too would any other system builder. As our Joel Hruska put it, "But Samsung suing Velocity Micro isn't just dubious, it's farcical."

We're not entirely sure where Samsung's latest request will go, but it seems pretty unlikely that NVIDIA will have to pull any of its products from the shelves while this battle continues. If NVIDIA did suffer that fate, it couldn't come at a worse time, given the holiday season - and likewise huge SHIELD Tablet push.

Both companies are confident that they're right in their respective legal matter, with neither believing they are infringing on anything. Time will give us the final answer.