Intel Slaps Via With Lawsuit

In a move that has been anticipated for months, Intel on Friday filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Via Technologies in U.S. District Court in Delaware.

The suit alleges that the Taiwanese chip-set maker's P4X266 and P4M266 chip sets violate five patents associated with Intel's Pentium 4 processor, according to Intel spokesperson Chuck Mulloy.

Reached for comment, Via spokesperson Dan Havey says he is unaware of the lawsuit.

Licensing Dispute

Via does not have a license for the 400-MHz bus that is used with the Pentium 4 processor, and Intel officials have repeatedly hinted at the possibility of legal action over the P4X266 in recent months. For their part, Via officials have maintained that Intel does not have a patent that covers the bus.

"We haven't broken any patents," said Richard Brown, director of marketing at the Taipei-based PC chip-set and processor vendor, at the launch of the P4X266 last month. "As far as we know, we haven't infringed any of Intel's patents."

In recent months, Via officials have pointed to a cross-licensing agreement between Intel and S3 Graphics, which is affiliated with Via and is named as a co-defendant in the lawsuit; S3 Graphics is a joint venture between Via and Sonicblue.

Via officials claim that cross-licensing agreement covers the P4X266 as well. Speaking last month, Brown would not comment on whether the P4X266 contains intellectual property from S3. However, Via plans to release in November the P4M266, which integrates a graphics core from S3 with the P4X266.

Memory and Price

At the heart of the legal battle is a contest over memory and pricing.

Existing Pentium 4 chip sets made by Intel support RDRAM (Rambus Dynamic Random Access Memory), but the P4X266 uses much cheaper DDR SDRAM (Double Data Rate Synchronous DRAM).

Intel plans to release its own chip set that supports DDR, the 845, early next year, with 845-based motherboards expected to appear in volume during January.

One analyst says Intel had no choice but to sue Via in order to maintain a level playing field for those who have licensed its technology.

"If Intel allowed Via to do this, that would give them an unfair advantage," says Nathan Brookwood, principal analyst with Insight 64. "Intel has an obligation to maintain a level playing field with regard to other licensees."

Unfair Advantage

If Intel did not sue Via for using the technology without a license, Via would have a cost advantage over those companies that had. "It would make it very hard for Acer [Labs] and SiS [Silicon Integrated Systems] to compete with Via," Brookwood says.

The timing between Intel's upcoming launch of its own 845 chip set and the lawsuit is most likely a coincidence, he says. "They had to wait until Via created a transaction where they sold these," Brookwood says. "As long as Via wasn't selling them, there was no violation of Intel's [intellectual property]."

When Paul Otellini, executive vice president and general manager of the Intel Architecture Group, was asked about Via's chip set at the Intel Developer Forum last month, "Otellini's response was that it takes two to tango," Brookwood says. "It didn't appear that Via was willing to negotiate with Intel," he said. "I think they wanted to get Via to the negotiating table," he adds.

This is not the first time that Intel and Via have locked legal horns over chip-set licensing.

In 1999, Intel filed lawsuits against Via in the United States, Singapore, and the UK, alleging that Via and some of its customers illegally used the P6 bus used with the Pentium III in chip sets. The companies settled the lawsuits last year.