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READ THE HIGHLIGHTED PARTS BELOW:
****Intel Denies DEC Charges, No Comment On Possible Countersuit
SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1997 MAY 16 (Newsbytes) -- By Grant
Buckler. Intel Corp. [NASDAQ:INTC] denied Digital Equipment Corp.'s
[NYSE:DEC] charges that its chips infringe 10 Digital Equipment
patents, and said it will "vigorously defend itself" against the suit.
The company would not comment on rumors that it will countersue
Digital, however.
Howard High, a spokesman for Intel, told Newsbytes that "we'd like to
keep our options open, so we're not going to give any guidance on that
point."
Earlier this week, Digital Equipment issued a sudden announcement
that it was taking Intel to court, alleging that Intel's Pentium,
Pentium Pro, and Pentium II microprocessors use technology that
infringes 10 patents held by Digital for technology used in its own
Alpha reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processors.
Robert Palmer, Digital's chairman, said during a teleconference
Tuesday that DEC talked to Intel in 1990 and 1991 about licensing the
Alpha technology for use in Intel products. During those discussions,
Digital gave Intel technical information about Alpha, in confidence. In
November, 1991, Palmer said, Intel told Digital it was not interested
in licensing the Alpha technology.
The original Pentium chip was launched in 1993, but it was not until
1995 that Digital suspected its technology had been copied. Palmer
claimed that the large performance gain in the Pentium Pro, coupled
with an article in The Wall Street Journal of August 26, 1996, aroused
his suspicions. He said the Journal quoted Intel officials as saying
the company had done little original microprocessor research up to that
time, instead copying existing technology developed by mainframe and
minicomputer manufacturers.
In its statement on the lawsuit, Intel said it has spent more than $4
billion on research and development and been issued nearly 1,000
patents for semiconductor, microprocessor, and other technologies in
the past three years.
Palmer said that, after the Pentium Pro was introduced, he asked
Digital's legal counsel to study the issue, and the company concluded
recently that all three existing versions of the Pentium use Alpha
technology. Digital is seeking damages and an injunction to stop Intel
from using the technology in future.
On the World Wide Web, Intel is at intel.com and Digital
Equipment is at digital.com .
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(19970516/Press Contact: Howard High, Intel, 408-765-1488; Dan
Kaferle, Digital Equipment, 508-493-2195/Reported By Newsbytes News
Network: newsbytes.com) |
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