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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."

6 of 263 comments (clear)

  1. Another Lawyer money maker by stecoop · · Score: 5, Informative

    Did anyone notice that the details are missing in the lawsuit? I read the patent and it I couldn't tell if they were seeking rights to the theory of relativity or dual processor technology. I suspect its speed step technology but who knows. Law cases are getting really thin now-a-days.

  2. Overdrive by GigsVT · · Score: 5, Informative

    This looks like it covers something more like the old "DX2" overdrive chips and things, where you install a second chip to upgrade the first. Makes you wonder why they didn't try to sue years ago.

    That's just from my preliminary reading though.

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  3. Coming on the heels of Integraph by sacremon · · Score: 4, Informative

    Integraph has just recently gotten Intel to pay them a large sum of money for patent infringment on, you guessed it, the pentium processor. In their case it involved the technology with the memory. Integraph is now off to sue everyone who used the chips who were not covered under the Intel deal. They just got a settlement from Gateway, and are supposedly aiming at HP next.

    I imagine that the success that Integraph has obtained, which was after a very long, drawn out battle that took years, has given this company the idea that they can indeed win a suit against Intel, and given the precedent of the Integraph case, far quicker than Integraph.

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  4. Legal Section on /. by jobsagoodun · · Score: 5, Informative

    Its called Groklaw!

  5. Re:In Related News...... by shadowcabbit · · Score: 4, Informative

    In addition to whatever else my sibling posters might say, Thomas Edison founded GE. You have a valid point, but next time please check your facts.

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  6. Violation of some claims is sufficient... by blorg · · Score: 4, Informative
    ...that's why patents start with the most general claims and work down to the specifics. In this case, the general claim for the system is made in (1):
    1. In combination, a computer system board having a socket for a first microprocessor and a clock for generating a first clock signal intended for the operation of said first microprocessor; an accelerator board connected to said socket to replace said first microprocessor;

    said accelerator board having an upgrade microprocessor thereon for operation under the control of a second clock signal having a frequency greater than that of said first clock signal;

    means responsive to said first clock signal for generating a sub-harmonic signal at a frequency that is a common denominator of the frequency of said first clock signal and said second clock signal with a known phase relationship between said sub-harmonic signal and said first clock signal; and

    phase lock loop oscillator means responsive to said sub-harmonic signal for generating said second clock signal in known phase relationship to said first clock signal.
    4Mhz is mentioned further down as a more specific implemention of this general claim [in (4)].