A Texas-based Data Processing Units (DPU) developer has filed a series of lawsuits against Amazon and its cloud business over alleged patent infringement.

Xockets alleges in suits filed in the Western District of Texas that Amazon used its patented DPU technology to “supercharge its cloud computing performance” without the company’s knowledge or permission.

The dispute dates back to 2017, when Amazon supposedly met with Xockets officials to discuss its DPU technology under the pretense of acquiring the firm.

Amazon executives and engineers, including the head of Annapurna Labs, which the tech giant had acquired two years prior, attended the meeting to “learn all they could about how Xockets' technologies work.”

No acquisition arose, and a year later, Amazon began rolling out its Nitro DPUs to servers in its data centers.

Xockets claims it became aware of the alleged infringement only last year, with its asserted DPU innovations providing Amazon with hundreds of billions of dollars in aggregate benefit from use across more than 20 million servers.

The decision to file suit came after Xockets said it approached Amazon in the hope of avoiding litigation, but that the firm “would not engage in meaningful discussions.”

Two complaints were filed – the first focusing on three patents focused on DPU computing architecture. Amazon is alleged to have used these in a new cloud processor in cloud servers capable of processing data-intensive workloads independent of server processors.

The second suit covers another four patents concerning switching architecture, which the hyperscaler allegedly used to accelerate its distributed computing offerings, an assertion Xockets claims “without which Amazon would not have a competitive AI business.”

Robert Cote, an Xockets board member, said: “These lawsuits aren't just about patents. They're about laws of a higher order. Innovation is sacred. Creation is divine.”

Cote is also an experienced intellectual property litigator who previously served at law firms including McKool Smith and Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, added.

The DPU developer has asked the Texas court for an injunction to prevent Amazon’s alleged infringements across its global cloud infrastructure, along with monetary damages.

“Xockets seeks swift resolution given the widespread, willful infringement by Amazon and irreparable harm to its business and exclusive patent rights – justice delayed, is justice denied,” the firm said in a statement.

SDxCentral has reached out to Amazon and AWS for comment.

This isn’t the first big-name firm Xockets has tried to take on, after it filed suit against Nvidia in September 2024 over claims the GPU giant “colluded” with Microsoft and patent risk management firm RPX to create a “buyers’ cartel to avoid paying the fair market price” for use of its patented technology.

At the time of writing, that case is ongoing, with Nvidia having filed motions to prevent certain documents related to the ongoing case from being publicly accessible. It also seeks to avoid producing certain discovery materials related to the proper venue location for the case.

Patent infringement aficionados will note that Xockets’ choice of venue for its latest lawsuit is often a favorable one for patent cases. The Western District of Texas is, however, dwarfed by the neighboring Eastern District of Texas, a venue far more favored by patent owners for its speed at handling cases – earning it the unofficial title as the ‘Patent Rocket Docket.’

For reference, LexisNexis notes that in the Eastern District of Texas, 45 percent of cases filed were patent-related in the first six months of 2024. On the other side of the state, it was just 14 percent.