Samsung throws Velocity under the bus in “unconscionable” lawsuit says CEO Randy Copeland
We’re all familiar with the Apple vs. Samsung legal battles, but a new rivalry is brewing between industry juggernauts, and it seems some small businesses may get decapitated by the shrapnel. First NVIDIA sued Samsung, then Samsung retaliated with a lawsuit of their own to which NVIDIA boastfully responded. While these two companies spar it seems a small company in Virginia is being used as a pawn in their legal chess match.
Velocity Micro CEO Randy Copeland took to their company’s blog to acknowledge the situation:
“Samsung has decided to drag us in to its legal battle with Nvidia purely for the purpose of claiming that the Federal District Court for Virginia’s Eastern District here in Richmond, also informally known as “the rocket docket” by some, is a reasonable jurisdiction for their litigation. They tactically need Velocity, a Richmond company, to be part of this new suit so they can have a faster time to trial to counter their lawsuits with Nvidia that are pending in those other courts. They are trying to beat Nvidia to the punch on other fronts, but they are all too willing to throw a private company under the proverbial bus for their own strategic reasons. It’s simply wrong, and a shining example of what’s broken in big corporate America.”
Phandroid cannot speak to the validity of these claims; patents are complicated things which is why it will take full legal teams months of diving through hundreds of pages of literature to concoct arguments and defenses. Maybe Velocity Micro is right and it’s just about geographical strategy. Maybe Samsung is right and Velocity has violated patents. That’s for the courts to determine.
What we are sure of, though, is that Samsung’s legal team is much larger than that of Velocity Micro’s (and that may be the understatement of the year). Whereas it’s just another day in court for Samsung, defending against Samsung can and will effect smaller businesses dramatically as Copeland explains:
“precious company resources and energy will be diverted from our core business and wasted to fight one of the world’s largest companies, just so they can play legal games with Nvidia and the court system.”
We sincerely hope that Samsung isn’t systematically using Velocity as a stepping stool to get to NVIDIA, disregarding the dramatic effect it could have on their business, but Velocity’s CEO insists that’s exactly what’s going on:
“Comparatively, we are a small private business, and have absolutely nothing to do with the disputes between these business giants. This is not our fight, and it’s unconscionable that Samsung is willing to completely disregard the effects and financial fallout this legal tactic will have on the undeserving employees of Velocity Micro and our local community.”
We love technology, but with billions of dollars at stake, this is one of the unfortunate realities that rears its ugly head. Once again, Phandroid has absolutely no opinion on who is right or wrong in this particular situation, we’re merely extending the opinion of Velocity CEO Randy Copeland whose complete statement can be read here.
But we know you – our readers – always have an opinion and always have something to say, so enlighten us. Vote in the poll below and head to the comments to explain your opinion on the NVIDIA, Samsung, Qualcomm, Velocity Micro spat and the state of patent lawsuits in tech in general.
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