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Intergraph Injunction Against Intel Suspended For Now
Kilbasar writes "News.com is reporting that the Itanic has hit another iceberg, with a District Court granting an injunction stopping Intel from making the chip. However, the injunction was immediately suspended to allow for another round of appeals, and I don't really see anything coming of this other than Intel paying Intergraph anywhere from $100M to $250M to use their patents."
This is just Intel's way of negiotiating how much they'll pay.
Intel is not the only chip manufacturer out there. AMD with its clawhammer is looking to be a better option anyway. Its just too bad teh general public doesnt know this. The same goes for Microsoft. Other alternatives are availible but alas Joe consumer just uses what everyone else does.
Choosing the lesser of two evils is a choice for evil.
... but does anybody know if Intergraph actually uses their patents to make chips? It seems rather silly if they don't develop anything themselves... Just my anonymous opinion however
Intel is already out $150 million. If they win the appeal, no more lost money. If they lose, they lose another $100 million. Either way they get permission to use the patent. There's really no reason for them not to pursue this.
Cogito ergo sum in Slashdot.
In some ways I'm hoping that this doesn't affect me as both a corporate IT person, and an avid computer geek, but alas, I think it is not so. The chips adhere to the law of spoilage; that if not brought to the marketplace before a certain time, they will actually be sold for a loss. I like the plantiff's position in this, in that they simply just need to wait it out while the fruit rots on the loading dock. I'm not a legal scholar, but what is all this hedging in the suit: I appeal, but lose 100 million, I win, lose the 100 million, you win, the 100 million, plus appeal money, but possibly lose ... oh I can't keep up..
"This isn't a study in computer science, its a study in human behavior"
I've hardly ever heard of Integraph outside of a few lousy graphics cards, or their workstation Clipper chips -- and just how much of Integraph's corporate income comes from suing Intel?
Then you obviously do jack shit with engineering workstations. Intergraph's graphics cards and workstations were for years among the best in the business. Overpriced, perhaps, but technologically sophisticated. when i worked in huntsville doing graphics, we used to get intergraph workstations on loan from the corporate office to use in our demos and at tradeshows. it was like christmas time, four or five times ayear. anyway, the whole reason this is an issue is because intergraph was doing this stuff years before intel decided to.
Aside from graphics and engineering workstations, intergraph sells a lot of gis and civil engineering solutions worldwide.
If the companies believe they can make wiser decisions outside the court, why do they go inside the court?
Well, in order to get to the part of the process where they sit down and hammer out an agreement, they have to go through the legal system equivalent of a game of chicken.
Intergraph says "I'm better than you" (you used our IP without paying)
Intel says back "No you're not" (no we didn't).
Intergraph retorts "Oh yeah? I'll prove it--I challenge you to a game of chicken" (We'll see you in court)
Intel: "Fine!" (Fine!)
Then, as the cars speed towards each other head on (as the court case progresses), Intel thinks that Intergraph isn't going to swerve out of the way first (has evidence to back up its claim), so they jerk the steering wheel to the side and chicken out (agree to some sort of non-judicial arbitration).
Driving head-on at one another is an important part of the legal system. It is the most costly of all the various means of proving whose wiener is bigger, but could very well end up with both parties wrecking their cars or dying. But since it's the only means of redress Intergraph can force Intel to participate in, it was invoked as its last resort. Basically, Intel wasn't going to give Intergraph a dime voluntarily unless their other option was limited to giving it to them involuntarily.
Personally, I think the CEO's of each company should be forced to play an actual game of chicken to decide the case. It might be a bit arbitrary, but the entertainment value would make up for that.
If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
Intergraph is doing wrong; this patent basically covers a crossbar to route instructions to their proper place. Not a super novel idea IMO...
BUT the means are justified. Intel's an immoral Juggernaut. Intergraph was their golden child for a couple years; Intel used INGR boxes to show off their new stuff...
Then INGR (perhaps wrongly) started to go after mobo mfg,'s over a patent they had on L2 cache (which is a stronger patent then the one above). Mobo mfg's shout 'help, Intel' and Intel proceeded to destroy INGR's Hardware division. At that time they were the only reasonable CPU to use for high end graphics (except SUN's stuff but there's no way SUN would sell to a compeditor).
So INGR stopps getting any engineering info and this puts them a year behind in their mobo design (a year is deadly).
This suit's been going on forever. Earlier this year INGR had the ability to stop Itanic production but caved for a piddly amount of money (the INGR CEO, Jim Taylor, basically got intimidated by The Intel CEO, Craig Barrett, into giving them patent rights for nothing). I would've loved to have INGR's say in that room. I would've shut them down out of despite the damn money.
Predatory corporations like Intel need to be taught a lesson occasionally.
Hammer, Hammer, Hammer!
Might not work like that. Stock markets are notorius for not following common sense. A more likely scenario is that if a major player in a certain sector is doing bad most likely all of the stocks in that sector are going to suffer.
A good example would be nokia-ericson parallels. Even though nokia is consistently making a profit and even beating the market estimates its stock gets pounded by bad news coming from a mismanaged swedish mobile phone manufacturer. So when someones misfortune should be someone elses fortune it just ends up being a misery for everyone (at least stockholders).