On December 28, 2015, Advanced Silicon Technologies LLC of Portsmouth, New Hampshire (“Advanced Silicon”) filed a complaint requesting that the ITC commence an investigation pursuant to Section 337.

The complaint alleges that the following entities (collectively, the “Proposed Respondents”) unlawfully import into the U.S., sell for importation, and/or sell within the U.S. after importation certain computing or graphics systems, components thereof, and vehicles containing same that infringe one or more claims of U.S. Patent Nos. 6,339,428 (the ‘428 patent), 6,546,439 (the ‘439 patent), 6,630,935 (the ‘935 patent), and 8,933,945 (the ‘945 patent) (collectively, the “asserted patents”):

• Bayerische Motoren Werke AG of Germany
• BMW of North America, LLC of Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey
• BMW Manufacturing Co., LLC of Greer, South Carolina
• Fujitsu Ten Limited of Japan
• Fujitsu Ten Corp. of America, Inc. of Novi, Michigan
• Harman International Industries Inc. of Stamford, Connecticut
• Harman Becker Automotive Systems, Inc. of Farmington Hills, Michigan
• Harman Becker Automotive Systems GmbH of Germany
• Honda Motor Co., Ltd. Of Japan
• Honda North America, Inc. of Torrance, California
• American Honda Motor Co., Inc. of Torrance, California
• Honda Engineering North America, Inc. of Marysville, Ohio
• Honda of America Mfg., Inc. of Marysville, Ohio
• Honda Manufacturing of Alabama, LLC of Lincoln, Alabama
• Honda Manufacturing of Indiana, LLC of Greensburg, Indiana
• Honda R&D Americas, Inc. of Torrance, California
• NVIDIA Corp. of Santa Clara, California
• Renesas Electronics Corp. of Japan
• Renesas Electronics America, Inc. of Santa Clara, California
• Texas Instruments Inc. of Dallas, Texas
• Toyota Motor Corp. of Japan
• Toyota Motor North America, Inc. of New York, New York
• Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. of Torrance, California
• Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc. of Erlanger, Kentucky
• Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Indiana, Inc. of Princeton, Indiana
• Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky, Inc. of Georgetown, Kentucky
• Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Mississippi, Inc. of Blue Springs, Mississippi
• Volkswagen AG of Germany
• Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. of Herndon, Virginia
• Volkswagen Group of America Chattanooga Operations, LLC of Chattanooga, Tennessee
• Audi AG of Germany
• Audi of America, LLC of Herndon, Virginia

According to the complaint, the asserted patents generally relate to computing and graphics technology.  In particular, the ‘428 patent relates to circuits that provide enhanced and realistic 3D video graphics by displaying detailed textures.  The ‘439 patent relates to a system that enables memory controllers to schedule access to memory in an intelligent way.  The ‘935 patent relates to 3D graphics pipeline circuitry for rendering high quality graphics.  Lastly, the ‘945 patent relates to circuitry for dividing graphics processing operations among multiple pipelines in a graphics system.

In the complaint, Advanced Silicon states that the Proposed Respondents import and sell products that infringe the asserted patents.  The complaint specifically refers to automotive infotainment systems, head-end units, navigation systems, graphics processors, microprocessors, integrated circuits, and other computing and/or graphics-capable electronic devices, and vehicles containing such components and systems, as infringing products.

Regarding domestic industry, Advanced Silicon states that the activities of its domestic licensees satisfy the domestic industry requirement.  In particular, the complaint refers to domestic investments of licensees Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., Intel Corp. (“Intel”), Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. and Samsung Austin Semiconductor LLC (collectively, “Samsung”), and GlobalFoundries, Inc. that relate to products that practice the asserted patents. The complaint specifically refers to Intel Atom products and Samsung Exynos products as example domestic industry products.

As to related litigation, Advanced Silicon states that it is currently asserting the asserted patents against numerous entities in various cases in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware.

With respect to potential remedy, Advanced Silicon requests that the Commission issue a limited exclusion order and permanent cease and desist orders directed at the domestic Proposed Respondents.