Intel and VIA make peace

Surprise conclusion to one of the industry's most infamous legal wrangles

Intel and VIA Technologies have buried the hatchet in a surprise conclusion to one of the industry's most infamous legal wrangles.

After 18 months of tit-for-tat spats, the two companies have reached a settlement that encompasses 11 pending cases in five countries, involving 27 patents.

Under the terms of the settlement, both companies will dismiss all pending legal claims in all jurisdictions. In addition, VIA and Intel have signed a 10-year patent cross-licence agreement covering each other's products.

The dispute kicked off in 2001, when Intel alleged that VIA's chipset and processor products infringed five of its patents. VIA immediately counter-sued, claiming that Intel infringed some of its patents and the company was acting anti-competitively.

The cessation of legal activities is good news for VIA, which has been hit hard by the costs, and by the fact that leading motherboard manufacturers refused to use VIA products for fear of upsetting Intel.

Speaking exclusively to CRN from Taiwan, VIA director of marketing Richard Brown said: "We are very happy with the result. Obviously, the litigation did impact our business negatively. Some of the tier-one motherboard manufacturers haven't used our products since the dispute began.

"But now, while VIA and Intel might be competing in some areas, the key is that there are a lot of areas where we will be working together.

"We have been in contact with most of the leading motherboard manufacturers, updating them on the outcome, and they are very excited about using some of the chipsets. We expect to see them launch VIA-based boards in June."

As part of the agreement, Intel - which was not available for comment - has granted VIA a licence to sell chips that are compatible with the x86 instruction set, but are neither pin-compatible nor bus-compatible.

Intel has also stated that for a period of three years it will not assert its patents on VIA bus- or pin- compatible microprocessors.

Intel has also granted VIA a four-year licence to design and sell chipsets that are compatible with the Intel microprocessor bus.