Graphics chip firm Nvidia filed a case against a firm in a New York district court, designed to prevent it being sued for patent infringement.

Scanner Technologies is a firm based in Minnesota and Nvidia said in the court filing it owns several patents 7,079,678 - 'Electronic component products made according to a process that includes a method for three dimensional inspection'and 7,085,411 - 'Method of manufacturing electronic components including a method for three dimensional inspection'.

These patents relate to inspection equipment for ball grid array devices, which is a method related to how a component makes contact with a circuit board.

Nvidia filed the case after Scanner Tech had sued ICOS Vision Systems, a case that Scanner lost in an appeal court on the 19th of June 2008.

Nvidia is an ICOS customer, and said that two years ago Scanner sued it but that case was dismissed. So Nvidia is trying to get a court to declare these patents can't be used for Scanner to sue again. X