Netherlands-based chip maker NXP Semiconductors has filed a patent infringement suit against rival chip maker, U.S.-based Marvell Semiconductor, which claims that Marvell infringed on four of its U.S. patents in chips sold to Microsoft for its Xbox One gaming console.
The suit, filed Jan. 21 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against Marvell Semiconductor and its parent, Marvell Technology Group, contends that Marvell violated four of NXP’s patents for Marvell’s Avastar 88W8887 and Avastar 88W8897 NFC chips.
Marvell supplies the two Avastar chips for the Xbox One. The Avastar 88W8782U is a wireless local area network (WLAN) chip, while the Avastar 88W8897M incorporates Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and NFC, although the Xbox One is not known to have made use of the NFC capability so far with any of its current game titles or peripherals. NXP mentioned the Xbox One console specifically in its petition. Microsoft reportedly had shipped about 10 million units of the Xbox One to retailers by November 2014, the first anniversary of its release, according to Microsoft, although it has not said how many of the consoles had been sold to consumers.
