The U.S. International Trade Commission has determined preliminarily that chip maker Nvidia Corp. and 15 other companies infringe three patents held by Rambus Inc. for memory controllers related to graphics processors. Administrative law judge Theodore Essex declared three of five Rambus patents still extant in the suit valid and infringed and noted that Nvidia and the other respondents, which use Nvidia technology in products they import to the U.S., each literally infringe, induce infringement and contribute to the infringement of the patents. Rambus, which designs memory interface technologies used in computers, consumer electronics and network systems, is represented in this matter by Finnegan.