San Francisco, Aug 4: Intel Corp, the world's largest semiconductor maker, said that it has been sued by a tiny Chicago-based company, alleging patent infringement of an obscure processor architecture.Intel, based in Santa Clara, California., confirmed a report on trade publication EE Times' Internet site that Intel was sued in late June by a company called TechSearch.
"The suit is without merit and we will vigorously defend ourselves," said Chuck Mulloy, an Intel spokesman.
EE Times reported that the suit could seek over $500 million in damages. Intel declined to comment on the amount.
TechSearch bought the patents in question from a company that is now in bankruptcy proceedings, called International Meta Systems Inc, which was developing a Pentium Pro Class processor aimed to fit in with Intel's standard architecture.
Attorneys for TechSearch were not immediately available.
TechSearch told EE Times that the patent in question was awarded in November, 1996. TechSearch ischarging that Intel's Pentium II and Pentium Pro Processors infringe on its patented technique to emulate the instruction set of a target computer using RISC (reduced instruction set computing) architecture.
TechSearch's attorneys also told EE Times that they were seeking a cash settlement in advance of trial.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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