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Transmeta Sues Intel for Patent Infringement

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the easy-advertising dept.

Cr0w T. Trollbot writes "Today Transmeta filed suit against Intel for patent infringement. From the article: 'The suit [...] alleges that Intel infringed upon ten of Transmeta's patents. The patents cover computer architecture and power efficiency technologies.' Transmeta offered a low-power x86 processor until last year which used Transmeta's vaunted 'code morphing' software."

4 of 161 comments (clear)

  1. Go figure by nurb432 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    When the chips are down, ( no pun intended ) and your business model is going up in a fireball.. sue someone!

    --
    ---- Booth was a patriot ----
  2. now just another sleezy IP company eh by hurfy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "including at least Intel's Pentium III, Pentium 4, Pentium M, Core and Core 2 product lines."

    So, when was Pentium 3?

    They waited until they were no longer in the market to sue so they cant be counter sued as effectively. Surely they must have done something they could be sued for, go get them anyway. This just smells funny. If your IP is so great why couldn't they make salable product out of it?

    I think these IP lawsuits work like games...the one crying cheater loudest is probably the guilty one ;)

    1. Re:now just another sleezy IP company eh by TheSpoom · · Score: 4, Insightful

      This is why business logic patents either shouldn't last nearly as long, especially technological patents, or (preferably) shouldn't exist at all. I don't remember Transmeta doing anything to advance the useful arts and sciences using these technologies, yet Intel has done so and made quite a bit of money in the meantime.

      Competition drives technology forward.
      Patents effectively outlaw competition.
      Therefore, patents kill the need for the company holding the patent to advance their own technology any further.

      The only reason these sorts of patents still exist are because some very powerful corporations can effectively stunt the market using them; by default nobody can compete on the same playing field since to do so they would have to have licenses to use the technologies in question, and companies like Intel and IBM own literally thousands of patents on just about everything. So they license their patent libraries among themselves, forming a sort of corporate clique in which outsiders are persona non grata.

      Maybe once enough of these patents bite companies like Intel in the ass, things will change. Unfortunately I think it'll take a while for that to happen.

      --
      It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
      - E. Debs
  3. You said it by BeeBeard · · Score: 3, Insightful

    From the article:

    "Last year, Transmeta laid off 67 employees in a restructuring plan aimed to focus more heavily on IP and the phase out its less profitable processors." (emphasis added)

    Patent portfolio operation?!? Whatever do you mean?? ;-)