Patent lawsuit against Intel dismissed
SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Intel Corp. (NasdaqNM:INTC - news) said that a patent lawsuit filed against it by a little-known Chicago area company called TechSearch has been dismissed.
TechSearch, a small Northbrook, Ill.-based company, filed a patent lawsuit suit against Intel in August, 1998, alleging that the computer chip giant infringed on a patented technique to emulate RISC (reduced instruction set computing) processor technology in its Pentium II and Pentium Pro processors.
Privately-held TechSearch bought the patent in question for $50,000 from a company that had gone bankrupt, called International Meta Systems.
Judge William Orrick, a U.S. District Court judge for the Northern district of California issued an order late last week, dismissing the case, saying that Intel had proved that it had prior art in existence, meaning that the patented technique in question was talked about or written in prior Intel patents.
''As far as we are concerned, the case is over,'' said Chuck Mulloy, a spokesman for Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel. ''We are pleased with the decision of the court.''
TechSearch describes itself on its Web site as engaged in the business of buying, owning and licensing patents and patent interests. TechSearch officials could not be reached for comment.
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