Seeks Injunction to Halt These Activities And
Financial Damages
TEMPLE,
Texas, Sept. 5, 2024 /PRNewswire/
-- Xockets, Inc., the inventor of advanced Data Processing
Units, or "DPUs," that enable accelerated computing and artificial
intelligence, or "AI," in cloud data centers, today filed a lawsuit
in the United States District
Court for the Western District of Texas, Waco Division, against Nvidia Corp.,
Microsoft Corp., and RPX Corp., alleging violation of federal
antitrust laws for illegal monopoly practices and willful patent
infringement (docket number 6:24-cv-453).
The lawsuit alleges that Nvidia and Microsoft have
formed an illegal cartel, facilitated by an entity called RPX, to
avoid paying the fair market price for Xockets' patented DPU
technology—fundamental intellectual property, or "IP," that Nvidia
uses to transform its GPUs into the drivers of the AI revolution
and dominate the market for GPU-enabled AI computer systems. The
filings allege that the buyers' cartel at issue in
this case is part of a pattern of illegal cartel behavior engaged
in by Nvidia and Microsoft, as evidenced by the ongoing
investigations of these entities by the U.S. Department of Justice,
the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, and the European Union.
The complaint further alleges that Nvidia has been
infringing on Xockets' patents since Nvidia's 2020 acquisition of
Mellanox, a deal that Nvidia's CEO, Jensen Huang, called "a homerun
deal." Nvidia's use of Xockets' patented DPU technology has allowed
Nvidia to monopolize the field of GPU-enabled AI servers and
Microsoft to monopolize the field of GPU-enabled AI platforms—and
is critical to their success and market capitalization. Xockets has
made every effort to engage Nvidia and Microsoft in good-faith
negotiations, but those efforts have been rebuffed.
The lawsuit seeks injunctions to stop the illegal cartel's
activities and enjoin the release of Nvidia's new Blackwell
GPU-enabled AI computer systems, which Nvidia has said will start
shipping to customers this fall, and Microsoft's use of the
Blackwell systems for its
generative AI platforms. Xockets is also seeking damages to the
fullest extent permitted by law.
"Nvidia and Microsoft are abusing their dominance and market
power in AI in an attempt to pay little or nothing for the
innovations of others that are used in their products. They are
engaging in illegal activities that are part of Big Tech's
predatory infringement playbook, a strategy designed to devalue the
IP of other innovators. Xockets invented advanced DPU technology,
including new computing and switching plane architectures for a new
class of cloud processors, that have enabled the AI revolution and
are critical to both Nvidia's and Microsoft's continued success,"
said Xockets board member Robert
Cote, an IP investor and expert on IP rights. "They have
refused to do the right thing and license Xockets' DPU
technology."
"Xockets is taking a stand on behalf of all innovators," Cote
said. "Xockets is seeking strict enforcement of its IP rights by
seeking injunctive relief to put an end to the RPX cartel that Big
Tech uses to devalue the IP of other innovators, and to halt the
willful patent infringement."
In the early 2010s, Xockets Co-Founder Dr. Parin Dalal invented a new class of cloud
processors known today as advanced Data Processing Units, or DPUs,
which enable cloud offload of data-intensive workloads such as
security, networking and storage tasks that make distributed
computing in cloud data centers possible, as well as the training
of large language models for AI production. This technology extends
computing intelligence into the network and has enabled today's
accelerated computing and cloud services that are powering the AI
revolution. Xockets filed its first patent application in May of
2012 and now owns multiple patents that cover its DPU computing and
switching plane architectures.
Nvidia's cloud systems now feature three distinct DPUs – the
BlueField, ConnectX, and NVLink Switch DPUs – for different
data-intensive workloads. All are based on Xockets' patented
architectures. Nvidia and Microsoft have been put on notice of
their infringement of Xockets' patents, but have refused to engage
in good-faith discussions with Xockets.
About Xockets
Xockets was founded in 2012 by Dr.
Parin Dalal and a team of network
infrastructure engineers to develop a new class of cloud processors
known today as advanced Data Processing Units, or DPUs, that he
invented prior to founding the company. The DPUs free server
processors, including CPUs, GPUs, and hybrids of these host
processors, from data-intensive workloads that would otherwise slow
down distributed computing and the growth of the cloud industry.
The data-intensive tasks include moving data between server
processors, such as proprietary security, networking and storage
operations, as well as sorting, organizing, and reducing/combining
these data streams to ready them for further processing by
applications running on server processors in cloud data centers.
Dr. Dalal invented new virtual switch computing and switching
architectures that implement programmable hardware acceleration in
the network of cloud data centers for processing data-intensive
workloads at network speeds—or line rate—to enable a new era of
accelerated computing and AI. The company was funded by visionary
investors that include Dr. Greg
Lavender, the current CTO of Intel; Robert Cote, one of the nation's top IP
investors and lawyers, also a Board member, who guided the company
in protecting its DPU innovations; and Jerry Yang, the co-founder of Yahoo, who
invested through his venture capital firm that he founded to invest
in breakthrough cloud technologies.
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SOURCE Xockets