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Intel Looks to Ban Via

If CPU leader gets its way, IBM and Micron may have to stop selling systems with Via's chips.

By James Niccolai, IDG News   

In a complaint filed January 7 with the U.S. International Trade Commission, Intel accuses Via of selling chip sets that infringe on Intel's technology patents. Intel asks the agency to bar Via from importing the chip sets to the U.S., and seeks to prevent systems that use the offending products from being imported or sold here,

The products in question include Via's high-end Apollo Pro, a high-performance chip set that features a 133-MHz system bus and supports 133-MHz memory. Intel doesn't currently offer a chip set with a 133-MHz SDRAM (synchronous dynamic random access memory) bus, although analysts have said it is preparing such a product for release by midyear.

The complaint stems from a 1998 licensing agreement between Intel and Via that turned sour when Intel accused Via last year of overstepping the terms of the contract. Intel withdrew Via's license in June 1999 and filed a patent-infringement and breach-of-contract lawsuit against the company a few days later in U.S. District Court in San Jose, California.

Via has denied any wrongdoing, and said earlier that Intel only wants to dampen support for its products.

The USITC typically has 30 days from the time a complaint is filed to decide whether it merits an investigation, a USITC spokesperson said on Tuesday.

The California lawsuit has been moving slowly. Via has yet to file a response, and the discovery phase in the case hasn't begun, court papers show. Intel rejects a suggestion that it filed the complaint with the USITC because it is unhappy with the slow progress it is making elsewhere.

"It wasn't filed to move anything along more quickly; the cases on file will move at the appropriate pace," says Intel spokesperson Chuck Mulloy. "This is just another court to file in. When you vigorously protect your intellectual property, you take all the steps you need to take."

System Sales Stopped?

The complaint names three of Via's chip set customers, but doesn't name any of Via's biggest U.S. customers, which include IBM and Micron Electronics.

However, if the USITC investigates Intel's complaint and grants the relief it asks for, those companies also could be prevented from selling systems in the U.S. that use Via's chip sets, Intel's Mulloy confirms.

"Potentially that could be the case," says Mulloy. "What we're looking for is to block the chip sets from being imported into this country, and how [the USITC] implements that would be up to them."

Via officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

But with PC memory technologies evolving quickly, Intel's case against Via could become moot if Intel doesn't get some results fairly quickly, notes Nathan Brookwood, principal analyst with research firm Insight 64 in Saratoga, California.

"By the time the courts have moved at their glacial speed, the issue of PC133 might be history," Brookwood says.

(Terho Uimonen in Stockholm contributed to this story.)