Intel Ordered to Pay $2.18 Billion After Losing Patent Trial

[Tsing]

Image: Intel



Intel may have to cope with losing nearly half of its fourth-quarter profit after losing a patent trial case in Texas. The chipmaker’s costly defeat was shared by Bloomberg Law earlier this week, which published a story confirming that Intel had been ordered to pay a remarkable $2.18 billion for allegedly infringing upon two patents held by VLSI Technology, Inc. that helped increase the power and speed of its processors. VLSI used to design and manufacture custom and semi-custom integrated circuits but no longer has any products.



“[VLSI] took two patents off the shelf that hadn’t been used for 10 years and said, ‘We’d like $2 billion,”’ William Lee, Intel’s lawyer, told the jury. Describing the demand by VLSI as an...

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[Brian_B]

Does it really matter if they had sat on them for 10 years? If they owned the patent, they owned it. Sounds like Intel couldn't sufficiently prove that they had arrived at the same solution independently.

I don't really like patent trolls, but especially in tech circles, you have to be able to either CYA on these things, or do some research and find out how much it's going to cost before hand...

 

[Uvilla]

I don't really mind "patent trolls". Companies with products are "patent trolls" all the same.
So what then? Goose and gander and all that.

 

[Burticus]

I'm sure Intel can shake out the couch cushions and come up with a couple billion, no problem