In a rare move, VLSI has agreed to dismiss one case of patent infringement against Intel, and all parties agreed. This is one of three ongoing legal disputes the two companies are engaged in, this one was in Delaware, and the others are in California and Texas.
Five patents were involved in the overall dispute, where VLSI was seeking an estimated $4 billion in damages, as reported by Reuters. All the parties involved agreed to settle the dispute and dismiss all claims of infringement – with prejudice. That means the case cannot be brought to court again. VLSI has agreed not to pursue claims against Intel customers and suppliers over the infringement of five CPU patents. Intel has agreed not to pursue the counterclaims it had brought in response to the original claims of infringement.
No monetary damages were paid by either side. In a court filing that read, “The parties have agreed to dismissal of claims and counterclaims asserted in this action.”
VLSI has sued Intel over 19 patents it says were infringed by Intel over CPUs that originated in Freescale, NXP, and SigmaTel. These cases are playing out in courts across the US and other countries. Some of the allegations, like the Delaware case, have been dismissed by agreement of the parties and some by juries, but there are many ongoing cases being litigated between to the two companies.
In the Delaware case, there was a claim of $4 billion dollars in damages to VLSI. In the end, the parties decided to dismiss all claims. This leaves two court cases still pending in the United States.
Back in March of 2021, a district judge in Waco, Texas, ordered Intel to pay VLSI $2.18 billion for infringing on two of its patents for frequency management and lowering memory voltage. Intel tried to overturn the ruling in August 2021 but failed.
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In November 2022, a federal jury ruled in favor of VLSI and ordered Intel to pay the company $949 million in damages for infringing on the 7,242,552 patent. The patent covered a way to decrease the problems of defects caused by stress applied to bond pads.
Both Apple and Intel have accused VLSI of unlawful patent aggregation. Intel has also said VLSI’s complex ownership structure allows them to hide who their investors are while those investors can “reap the benefits of the suits.” VLSI’s controlling organization is Fortress Investment Group, a private equity firm owned by Softbank. Softbank owns Arm.
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For the past 8 years, I have been writing about embedded technologies, added to my technical, academic, and medical editorial experience, with companies like Elsevier and Cambridge University Press. I tell people to read what I write, not try to pronounce my last name. I am always available for comments and suggestions you can reach me at product-editor@circuitcellar.com and I promise I will take the time to reach back out to you. I live in the North East with my wonderful family.
