Context: According to Xockets, Dr. Parin Dalal invented a cloud processor and computing architecture in 2011 that is now known as a Data Processing Unit (DPU), to enable the transition of every data center to an AI data center. Dr. Dalal then founded Xockets in 2012, which designed and built the worldâs first-ever advanced DPUs.
Whatâs new: Xockets has sued Amazon in the Western District of Texas for allegedly infringing seven of its DPU-related patents, claiming this is only to help slash its operating costs and expand its own gains. In two separate claims, Xockets has alleged:
âAmazon willfully trampled on the exclusive property rights of Xockets, a visionary startup that Amazon has known about for approximately a decade.â
Through this infringement, Amazon has achieved âstaggering profitsâ and its AI revolution âhas only expanded Amazonâs gainsâ. Xockets is seeking injunctions, claiming that the estimated financial benefits to Amazon are between $15,000 and $30,000 per server, representing hundreds of billions of dollars in aggregate benefit from the use of Xockets’ DPU innovations.
Direct impact: The fact that Xockets has filed two simultaneous patent infringement complaints against the same defendant in the same district court is unusual â and may be because the company is seeking to maximize its chances of having its case assigned to Judge Alan D. Albright of the Austin division of the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas. The judge previously heard cases in the Waco division but was transferred to Austin in January after his popularity in the courtroom for patent litigation drew criticism.
Wider ramifications: The companyâs request for an injunction also comes at a good time. Last week, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division and the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office filed a Statement of Interest in a patent infringement dispute in which Radian Memory Systems is seeking an injunction against Samsung Electronics (June 24, 2025 IP Watchdog article). The government bodies urged U.S. federal courts to restore injunctions as a matter of course in patent cases â and emphasized that non-practicing entities are not categorically barred from proving irreparable harm. It also comes after some members of the United States Congress have proposed measures to lower the bar for issuing nationwide injunctions (April 9, 2025 New York Times article).
In a statement yesterday, Xockets board member Robert Cote said:
âXockets is a visionary startup that saw the future and built it, only to have it taken by one of the world’s largest corporations without consent, compensation, or conscience.â
These lawsuits, he added, arenât just about patents. They are about laws of a âhigher orderâ:
âInnovation is sacred. Creation is divine.â
The patents-in-suit include:
- U.S. Patent No. 11,080,209 (âServer systems and methods for decrypting data packets with computation modules insertable into servers that operate independent of server processorsâ)
- U.S. Patent No. 10,649,924 (âNetwork overlay systems and methods using offload processorsâ)
- U.S. Patent No. 11,082,350 (âNetwork server systems, architectures, components and related methodsâ)
- U.S. Patent No. 10,223,297 (âOffloading of computation for servers using switching plane formed by modules inserted within such serversâ)
- U.S. Patent No. 10,212,092 (âArchitectures and methods for processing data in parallel using offload processing modules insertable into serversâ)
- U.S. Patent No. 9,378,161 (âFull bandwidth packet handling with server systems including offload processorsâ)
- U.S. Patent No. 9,436,640 (âFull bandwidth packet handling with server systems including offload processorsâ)
This is the first complaint:
This is the second complaint:
While the first complaint alleges the ârampant and widescaleâ exploitation by Amazon of the exclusive IP rights granted to Xockets in patents for its new cloud processor and computing architecture, the second complaint alleges the same of its new cloud fabric and switching plane architecture patents.
The complaints claim that, in 2017, Amazon conducted a so-called âDeep Diveâ meeting with Xockets and engaged in extensive diligence into Xockets’ revolutionary DPU technologies under the premise of acquiring Xockets. But it never acquired the company and, a year later, it started rolling out Nitro DPUs to the servers in its data centers. Those DPUs have now been deployed in over 20 million servers, with each having at least one DPU.
In March 2024, Xockets contacted Amazon with a proposal to either sell its IP or give it an exclusive license to the DPU technology. However, Amazon declined to accept and âchose to employ an âinfringe now, pay laterâ strategy, irreparably harming Xocketsâ, the company alleges.
Xockets alleges that Amazonâs cloud infrastructure lab âAnnapurna Labsâ is âground zeroâ for the patent infringement. It noted in its complaints that Annapurna is âone of the worldâs most influential research labs powering modern artificial intelligence,â and is âcentral to Amazonâs high-stakes AI strategy.â Amazon acquired the lab for approximately $350 million in 2015 (January 22, 2015 Vox article).
The complaints added that Amazon claims to be the leader in a competitive race to support the exponentially growing footprint and need for distributed computing infrastructure and services, including operating machine learning and AI applications for customers.
But to maintain its market dominance, Amazon âwillfully trampledâ on Xocketsâ IP, the company concluded.
Counsel
Xockets is being represented by a team at Susman Godfrey LLP: Kalpana Srinivasan and Hunter A. Vance (both of whom were counsel for Huawei in its case against Netgear in the U.S., which the companies settled: January 4, 2025 ip fray article), Joseph S. Grinstein (who represents Fractus in its suits against Geotab and Verizon in the Eastern District of Texas: December 16, 2024 ip fray article), as well as Allen J. Hernandez, and Tamar Lusztig.
The company is currently embroiled in another DPU-related patent infringement litigation in the Western District of Texas, which it filed last September against Nvidia, Microsoft and patent aggregator RPX Corporation (September 5, 2024 press release by Xockets (PDF)). In December, Microsoft filed, with Nvidiaâs support, a so-called CSE (customer-suit exception) motion, asking the court to sever and stay the patent infringement claims against it as it makes more sense to resolve the claims against the chipset maker first (December 14, 2024 ip fray article). A week later, Xockets filed its opposition to the motion (December 21, 2024 ip fray article), and asked the court for expedited venue discovery and modification of the briefing schedule.
In May, the court granted Xocketsâ latter motion. It then ordered all parties to file replies to Nvidiaâs motion to transfer venue by August 18, 2025.