Withdrawn Intel suit a mystery
May 26, 1999
ELECTRONIC BUYERS NEWS via NewsEdge Corporation : Two weeks
after Intel Corp. withdrew its lawsuit against Taiwanese chipset maker Via
Technologies Inc., executives were still bitter about the action taken by the
chip maker.
"I believe Intel is really worried, and the lawsuit was meant to intimidate us
and perhaps OEM customers," said Dean Hays, Via's vice president of
marketing, at the company's Fremont, Calif., location last week. "It was
totally off base, because our Intel license definitely covers any Via chipset
that might be of concern to Intel."
Intel had filed a breach-of-contract suit against Via, charging the
Taipei-based company with trying to sell an unlicensed logic chipset,
according to court documents filed in San Jose. On the same day the
lawsuit was filed, Intel withdrew it, claiming it was was mistakenly filed by
its outside counsel.
Intel's perplexing action came just after it had settled an antitrust case with
the Federal Trade Commission over earlier licensing disputes with Compaq
Computer Corp., the former Digital Equipment Corp., and Intergraph Corp.
Some industry observers wondered if Intel's admitted "mistake" in filing the
Via lawsuit involved second thoughts on how this action might affect the
just-concluded FTC settlement. A spokesman for Intel, Santa Clara, Calif.,
said there is no relationship between its licensing dispute with Via and the
settlement with the FTC.
A copy of the withdrawn Via suit revealed that Intel wanted a restraining
order against Via selling unspecified chipsets using Intel technology that
allegedly had not been licensed to the Taiwanese company.
Hays claimed that all of Via's current and upcoming chipsets that connect
to Intel's Celeron and Pentium processors are covered by the licensing
agreement. Furthermore, he said Via's upcoming integrated chipset that
uses Trident Microsystems' graphics-accelerator core and competes head
on with Intel's integrated chipset, which also implements Trident's
technology, are protected under the contract as well.
Hays speculated that Intel might be concerned with Via's imminent chipset
designed to connect PC133 SDRAM with Intel processors, since Intel is
doing all in its power to derail adoption of PC133 in favor of Direct Rambus
DRAM.
The Intel spokesman said Hays was misinformed about chipsets covered
by the licensing agreement. He declined to elaborate, however, claiming the
licensing agreement was confidential.
The Intel complaint did not identify the specific Via chipsets in question, but
the suit said Via "began in February and March, 1999, demonstrating the
chipsets to OEMs and providing samples to OEMs for evaluation purposes,
and informing OEMs that the chipsets would be available for delivery in the
third quarter of 1999."
Copyright c 1999 CMP Media Inc.
By Jack Robertson
<<ELECTRONIC BUYERS NEWS -- 05-24-99, p. PG82>>
[Copyright 1999, CMP Publications] |
