The US International Trade Commission (ITC) has agreed to investigate a complaint that Samsung products, including mobile phones, tablets and laptops, have infringed two patents covering semiconductors.

The US International Trade Commission said it will investigate Apple following allegations by Qualcomm that the iPhone maker is violating six of its non-standards-essential patents. The review is the latest move in an escalating legal battle between the world's largest cellular chip vendor and one of its largest customers.

The complaint specifically refers to Toshiba flash memory chips and products containing such chips-including memory cards, solid-state drives, wearable devices, digital camcorders, mobile devices, advanced audiovisual systems, car navigation systems, computers, servers, and other consumer electronic devices-as infringing products.

The US International Trade Commission staff is recommending that Samsung Electronics and Qualcomm be cleared of patent-infringement accusations brought by Nvidia.

Samsung has overtaken ITC to become India's second-largest consumer-facing products company by revenues, and now looks set to better Maruti this fiscal to take the top slot.

The US ITC expects to complete its investigation into allegations of patent infringement between Apple and Samsung at the end of next week (August 4-11).

The US International Trade Commission said Tuesday it won't challenge an administrative law judge's decision that Nanya Technology could end its memory patent probe into bankrupt Elpida Memory after licensee Micron Technology offered to acquire Elpida for US$2.5 billion.

Patent holding company Pragmatus has filed an ITC compaint against six electronics vendors including Samsung and HTC.

Freescale Semiconductor has filed a complaint with the US International Trade Commission (ITC) accusing MediaTek, Zoran and others of patent infringement, the ITC has said by way of an online posting of pending complaints.

Apple originally asserted 10 of its patents against HTC in March 2010, and the judge ruled today that HTC infringed on two patents, according to an HTC statement.

The US trade agency has agreed to review a complaint by Freescale against Funai Electric, Funai, Mediatek and Zoran.

Judge E. James Gildea found that Apple infringes US Patent No. 6,658,146 directed to systems and methods for compressing images and US Patent No. 6,683,978 directed to image data formats, both of which belong to S3 Graphics. In the industry, that technology is known as S3 Texture Compression (S3TC).

Spansion and Samsung Electronics have agreed to settle all ongoing patent litigation and disputes, including their respective investigations with the US International Trade Commission.

Apple won the first round in a patent fight with Elan Microelectronics over touchpad technology, the ITC said on April 29.

Analog Devices (ADI) has announced the US ITC ruled decisively in favor of the company in its lawsuit against Knowles Electronics.

The six-member commission has said it will not review an October finding by ITC judge Charles Bullock that Samsung didn't violate Spansion patent rights, according to a posting on the Washington-based agency's website.

Shares of Tessera Technologies, which owns and makes money licensing numerous patents for combing computer chips together, are up 7% at US$22.09 after an appeals court ruled in favor of the company in its suit against Qualcomm, Spansion and STMicroelectronics.

Rambus is giving out another round of subpoenas to all of its friends in the tech industry. Most interesting among the defendants perhaps is Nvidia, who only months ago signed a licensing agreement with Rambus to end an ITC blockade of its products.

Nokia Oyj shouldn't be found liable of infringing Apple Inc.'s patents, the staff of the U.S. International Trade Commission said as a trial started.

Spansion on August 6 filed three complaints against Samsung, alleging patent violations in a broad range of Samsung flash memory products that go into devices like tablets and smartphones. A Spansion spokesman declined to comment on which products those may be. However, Apple's iPad and iPhone 4 use Samsung flash memory.

The US ITC has found Nvidia and several of its customers liable for infringing three Rambus patents in a hotly contested dispute over technology for memory controllers.

Rambus, which designs memory chips, said that an administrative judge for the US International Trade Commission has ruled that graphics chip maker Nvidia has violated three of its patents.

"The ITC affirmed the validity of our asserted patents. We are disappointed, however, with the determinations regarding our infringement methodology and patent exhaustion," said Tessera CEO. "We will have an opportunity to appeal this ruling..."

An administrative law judge at the US International Trade Commission ruled that Samsung has infringed two camera patents developed by Kodak.

Murata Electronics North America has asked the US International Trade Commission to investigate whether two subsidiaries of Samsung Electronics have been importing electronic components into the country that infringe four of its patents covering ceramic capacitors.

Sharp said it may appeal a ruling by a US trade panel that said the Japanese electronics maker had violated an LCD patent held by South Korea's Samsung Electronics.

Tessera Technologies has said that it won a patent dispute over small-format semiconductor packaging products, with the International Trade Commission issuing a cease-and-desist order against rivals Motorola, Qualcomm, Freescale Semiconductor and Spansion.