Via Lawsuit Gets a Boost in Court

Taiwanese chipset and microprocessor vendor Via Technologies claimed a small victory in its ongoing legal struggle with Intel with a ruling by a U.K. Appeals Court that allegations of anti-competitve behavior against Intel can proceed to trial, according to a statement released by Via. The ruling overturns an April decision by the High Court in the U.K. that had dismissed the allegations, it said.

In September 2001, Intel filed two lawsuits in the U.K. against Via, which is based in Taipei. In one suit, Intel claimed that Via's P4X266 chipset violates both a European patent and a U.K. patent held by Intel, while the second suit claimed that Via's C3 microprocessor infringes on three of Intel's U.K. patents.

P4 Support

The P4X266 was Via's first chipset designed to support Intel's Pentium 4 processor. However, Via has not signed a licensing agreement with Intel to produce Pentium 4 chipsets. In response to the lawsuits filed by Intel, Via has long denied that it has infringed on any of Intel's patents.

As part of Via's legal defense in the U.K., the company's lawyers have argued that Intel has acted anti-competitively in the chipset and processor markets through and is not entitled to enforce its patents, the statement said. In April, the High Court had dismissed those allegations but the latest ruling will allow Via to use these claims in its defense against Intel's patent infringement suit.

In addition to the U.K. suit, Intel has also filed similar suits in the U.S., Germany, and Hong Kong. In the U.S., Intel has claimed that the P4X266 chip set violates patents it holds while Via filed a countersuit claiming that Intel's Pentium 4 processor violates a patent jointly held by Via and a subsidiary.