Intersil files WLAN trade secret suit against Agere
Semiconductor Business News
October 30, 2002 (3:45 p.m. EST)
IRVINE, Calif.--In what is turning out to be a major legal battle in the IC industry, Intersil Corp. today filed a counterclaim against Agere Systems Inc. over wireless local area networking (WLAN) technology.
The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Philadelphia, charges Agere with theft of trade secrets and misappropriating Intersil's “choice medium access control (CMAC) wireless local area network (WLAN) technology.”
Intersil also claims that WLAN products being shipped by Agere utilize its CMAC technology. Intersil's action seeks both an immediate and permanent injunction to prevent Agere and its partners to develop, make, and sell chips that use Intersil's CMAC technology.
"Intersil's intellectual property is a core company asset and we want to ensure our employees, shareholders and customers that we will protect and defend to the fullest extent of the law," said Rich Beyer, president and CEO of Intersil, in a statement.
Earlier this month, Agere filed a WLAN patent infringement suit against Intersil. The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Delaware, charges that Intersil infringed upon six of Agere's WLAN patents. Three of the patents are essential to comply with the IEEE 802.11b WLAN standard, according to the Allentown, Penn.-based company.
The remaining three patents cover technology associated with physical-layer (PHY) and radio components, which are currently being used in Intersil's WLAN chip sets and reference designs (see Oct. 17 story ). Intersil of Irvine denied those claims.
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