Marksman papers, the actual court papers, NVIDIA is as gulity as sin

[classy]

Here is link to the Marksman papers. There is no doubt at all that nvidia is guilty. And very gulity I might add. I read the whole thing. The use of the proper terms can be little tiresome, but man they are in serious trouble. The method that 3dfx uses is very specific and described in the papers. The thing that is very interesting is nvidia not once tried to deny or even remotely argue they are not using the specific techniques laid out in the patents. If you read through them you'll see where they wanted the judge to change the meanings of certain words and even adopt additional input to the patents. In one instance the judge even said nvidia's explaination of mip mapping was even poorly written. Out of about 15 or so different claims of infrinement, only 2 did the court give nvidia a break. But they are minor. The big boy which is the mulit-texturing technique which is in the begining of the papers, nvidia is so guilty its a shame. They tried to argue even how broad or narrow the patents should be to no avail. 3dfx has so many cases backing them from previous patent court cases its ridiculous. They have nvidia in a very serious spot. And the techniques they are infringing on is without a doubt through out their entire video card line since TNT. OUCH. This is truly a must read. Rather long though.

 

[RoboTECH]

indeed. why do you think nvidia opened suit on 3dfx a few months back?

heh...anyone remember how nvidia got S3TC in the first place?

 

[BenSkywalker]

classy-

"The method that 3dfx uses is very specific and described in the papers."

Do you understand what the papers said? They were extremely broad, nothing truly specific was pointed to at all.

By their definition BitBoy's EMBM is a violation of 3dfx's "multi-texturing" patent. For that matter, rendering software used by Pixar in the mid 80s is in violation and some early 3D technology from the 1970s falls under their broad based claims.

The way in which they described it may sound very detailed, but it is wide open and can be interperted to using any math to comine multiple image elements in 3D is a violation if done on a computer. Read it close and check up on the terminology and techology they are discussing.

If anyone is old enough, remember the IBM BIOS patent? They "won" the first few rounds of that suit also. If that had held up in court, noone but IBM could have ever used BIOSs in PCs.