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Intel Sued for Patent Infringement

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the familiar-sounding-ideas dept.

mfh writes "All Computers Inc. has filed suit against Intel for infringing on US Patent (5,506,981). Apparently Intel utilized patent-conflicting circuitry to determine the frequency of the input signal to the microprocessor, including Pentium processors. All Computers is asking for the tidy sum of $500 million USD."

1 of 263 comments (clear)

  1. Re:One day nothing will be able to be done by jamesh · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Patents are necessary for technology to advance in the private sector. So many people fail to get this. It's how patents are applied that is the problem.

    If All Computers spent time and money developing an idea and then Intel just ripped it off, then they deserve to be paid. If, on the other hand, they just had a good idea which would be obvious to anyone who was aware of the problem, and are trying to capitalise on it then they deserve to be severely beaten about the head with web newspaper.

    If your investment in time and money is just going to be ripped off by someone else then nobody will do it. It has to be protected somehow and patents are the best method they have come up with.