September 27, 2024
Inventor-backed Advanced Cluster Systems, Inc. (ACS) has revived its sole litigation campaign, launched in October 2019 with a suit against NVIDIA, with separate cases against Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) (7:24-cv-00244) and Intel (7:24-cv-00245) in the Western of Texas. The five asserted patents, four of which are asserted in litigation for the first time, are broadly directed to cluster computing. AMD is accused of infringement through the provision of server and workstation products that use AMD's MI-series accelerators, as well the accelerators themselves; and Intel, over server and workstation products that use Intel's Habana AI-series accelerator products, the accelerators themselves, and certain Xeon Scalable Processor-series products.
The asserted patents (10,333,768; 11,563,621; 11,570,034; 11,811,582; 12,021,679) belong to a family of ten with issue dates ranging between December 2011 and June 2024 and a shared estimated priority date in June 2006. The patents' named inventors are Dean E. Dauger, President and CEO of Dauger Research, Inc., a developer of "Cluster Computing, Scientific Visualization and Simulation software"; and Zvi Tannenbaum, identified in the complaint as having founded ACS in 2004 with the mission of "building innovative parallel programming tools for high-performance computing applications running on multicore, clusters, and supercomputers". ACS touts in its complaints the development of its "Supercomputing Engine Technology (SET)", particularly as applied to "Wolfram Research Mathematica, providing it with supercomputing-level parallelization".
As noted, ACS launched this, its sole litigation campaign in October 2019 with a suit against NVIDIA. The parties stipulated to dismissal in April 2023 (in light of a settlement agreement) amidst claim construction, with the case having notably been stayed from November 2020 through June 2021 to await the outcome of five petitions for inter partes review (IPR) of the four asserted patents (the 8,082,289; 8,140,612; 8,676,877; and '768 patents). Two were denied institution (as to the '768 patent) and three (as to the '289, '610, and '877 patents) were terminated after institution, the latter petitions following ACS's motion to partially dismiss all claims based on the '289, '612, and '877 patents.
The new West Texas cases have yet to be assigned to a judge. Cherry Johnson Siegmund James PLLC represents the plaintiff in litigation. In addition to damages, the plaintiff seeks an injunction, reasonable royalties, and a judgment of willful infringement (pleading knowledge as of "at least of the filing date" of the complaints). 9/26, Western District of Texas.
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