Nvidia Hit with Patent Infringement Lawsuit Over Data Center Networking Portfolio

Nvidia's data center networking portfolio has been hit with claims of 'willful' patent infringement. PulseLink Systems, a Texas-based company, filed a 65-page lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas against Nvidia. The lawsuit alleges that Nvidia's network switching platforms and data processing units infringe on five patents covering features like network packet processing, optimization, and loop prevention in unified networks.

The complaint cites several Nvidia product lines, including BlueField DPUs, ConnectX SmartNICs, Spectrum switches running Cumulus Linux, and Spectrum-X with remote direct memory access (RDMA) over converged Ethernet (RoCE) adaptive routing. PulseLink claims that it wrote to Nvidia's CEO, general counsel, and CFO in May asserting ownership of the allegedly infringed patents, but Nvidia responded by opting not to take a license.

Nvidia is headquartered in California, but the lawsuit was filed in Texas due to the company's presence in the Lone Star State. PulseLink has attempted to establish jurisdiction by citing Nvidia's control over facilities in the district belonging to its customers, such as Lambda and Aligned Data Centers.