Rambus launches patent attack against 6 companies

SAN FRANCISCO, USA: Rambus Inc has asked the U.S. International Trade Commission to investigate Broadcom Corp and five other companies for patent infringement

The company, which has a history of litigating against chip makers for violating its intellectual property rights, said it asked the ITC to investigate Nvidia Corp, Freescale Semiconductor Inc, LSI Corp, MediaTek Inc, STMicroelectronics and Broadcom.

The ITC complaint revolves around different groups of Rambus patents. In July, the ITC found some of those patents had been infringed by Nvidia, which said at the time that it would appeal.

"We have been attempting to license these companies for some time to no avail," Rambus chief executive Harold Hughes said in a statement.

Nvidia, Broadcom, MediaTek, Freescale, STMicro and LSI were not immediately available for comment.

The ITC is an independent body that considers import damage to U.S. industries.

Rambus also said it filed separate lawsuits over some of the same patents in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

Shares of Rambus held steady in after hours trade.