Within the ongoing authorized battle between Intel and VLSI that began years in the past and with billions at stake, Intel appears to be prevailing. The U.S. Patent Trial and Attraction Board (PTAB) has lately invalidated two VLSI-owned patents ‘price’ a complete of $2.1 billion, whereas one other main dispute doubtlessly ‘price’ $4.1 billion for Intel was dissolved late final 12 months.
The litigation between Intel and VLSI is multifaceted to say the least, involving quite a few circumstances throughout varied U.S. and worldwide courts. The sum that Intel must pay ought to it lose in courts could be within the billions of {dollars}, as VLSI contended that Intel infringed on 19 of the patents it owns and which originated from IP filed by Freescale, SigmaTel, and NXP. Whereas a variety of these allegations have dominated on in some trend, both in opposition to Intel, dismissed by court docket juries, or had the concerned patents revoked, there are nonetheless some allegations which are awaiting a ruling.
However let’s begin from the most recent developments.
Again in Might the PTAB invalidated frequency management patent (‘759’) discovering it ‘unpatentable as apparent,’ this month the identical board found that one other patent — the memory voltage reduction method patent (‘373’) — within the $2.1 billion case was ‘unpatentable.’ The 2 patents have been initially issued to SigmaTel and Freescale. These verdicts by the PTAB might doubtlessly exempt Intel from making funds to VLSI for allegedly violating its 759 and 373 patents. On the flip facet, VLSI retains the choice to problem these PTAB rulings on the U.S. Court docket of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
“We discover [Intel] has demonstrated by a preponderance of proof that the challenged claims are unpatentable,” a ruling by the U.S. Patent Trial and Attraction Board reads.
Two years in the past, a neighborhood choose in Waco, Texas, dominated in VLSI’s favor and decided Intel owed $2.18 billion in damages for infringing two patents. One was a frequency administration patent developed by SigmaTel, which was assigned $1.5 billion, and the opposite a reminiscence voltage discount approach created by Freescale, accounting for $675 million. Intel made an unsuccessful attempt to overturn this ruling in August 2021, which led them to hunt the PTAB’s ruling to void each patents.
Intel and VLSI beforehand agreed to resolve the Delaware-based portion of their $4 billion patent dispute late final 12 months. In the meantime in a separate Texas case, a jury dominated that Intel owed VLSI practically $949 million for infringing its 7,242,552 patent. This explicit patent particulars a way meant to alleviate issues arising from strain utilized on bond pads.
Though the authorized warfare doesn’t look to be over but, Intel appears to be gaining the higher hand in its authorized battles with VLSI.
