Goliath down, for now - The Antenna - Intel

Electronic News, Oct 14, 2002

GOLIATH TOOK ONE BETWEEN THE EYES LAST WEEK AS Intel lost a patent case to Intergraph.

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas ruled that Intel's most powerful processor, Itanium, infringes on Intergraph's patented technology for defining key aspects of parallel instruction computing.

Since the ruling, Intel announced that it plans to ask a federal judge to reconsider. And if its request is turned down, the company plans to appeal.

Under terms of an earlier 1997 settlement agreement, Intel paid Intergraph $300 million for a license under all of its patents and patent applications filed before April 4,2012, excluding the patents at issue in this most recent case. The agreement also mandates that as the current case stands in Intergraph's favor, Intel has to pay out an additional $150 million.

If Intel's appeal sways the court, the chip giant pays no additional money. But if Intel loses on appeal, it could take another $100 million out of its wallet to license the patents.

Maybe Intel should ditch the high-priced lawyers and use a cheap slingshot defense, instead.