On November 15, Monterey Research, LLC filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. in Delaware federal court (Monterey Research, LLC v. Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. 1:19-cv-02149). Monterey Research is an intellectual property and technology licensing company. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) is a publicly traded electronics manufacturer with a registered agent, The Corporation Trust Company, in Delaware. Monterey Research has filed two other patent infringement lawsuits within the month of November, one against Nanya Technology and one against Qualcomm Incorporated. All three suits deal with technology related to semiconductors and integrated circuits.
The Patents-in-Suit for Monterey v. Advanced Micro Devices are 6,534,805 (“the ’805 patent”); 6,629,226 (“the ’226 patent”); 6,651,134 (“the ’134 patent”); 6,765,407 (“the ’407 patent”); 6,961,807 (“the ’807 patent”); and 8,373,455 (“the ’455 patent”). Monterey is the owner and assignee of these patents, which cover a “SRAM Cell Design,” a “FIFO Read Interface Protocol,” a “Memory Device with Fixed Length Non Interruptible Burst,” a “Digital Configurable Macro Architecture,” a “Device, System and Method for an Integrated Circuit Adaptable for Use in Computing Systems of Differing Memory Requirements,” and an “Output Buffer Circuit.” Patents ‘805, ‘134, and ‘407 appear in Monterey’s other lawsuits as well.
The complaint said the technology in these patents was developed by companies like Cypress Semiconductor Corporation. Monterey claims that AMD violates their patent by manufacturing products, collaborating or funding the development of ways to manufacture products, advertising, and/or selling products that use the technology covered in these patents. Some of the accused products are AMD’s semiconductor devices, products including NVME compliant memory, the Radeon RX 580 graphics card, products with a high bandwidth cache, and products with an output driver and/or pre-driver. More generally, Monterey accuses AMD of using the Patents-in-Suit in motherboards, computers, servers, and videogame consoles without licensing them.
Monterey is asking for the court to rule that Advanced Micro Devices willfully infringed on all the Patents-in-Suit and asks for damages to be awarded for the infringement including up to three times the amount of damage found, as well as pre- and post-judgment interest, attorneys’ costs and fees, and injunction against further infringement on the Patents-in-Suit or licensing fees for the future.
Much of the language in this complaint is similar to or an exact copy of language found in the complaints for Monterey’s previous lawsuits. This includes descriptions of the patents and in which the patents are being infringed upon. Sometimes entire paragraphs are copied but for the defendants’ names.
Monterey Research is being represented by the law firm Farnan in this matter and in the matters against Qualcomm Incorporated and Nanya Technology.
