Lawsuits fly between Intel and Via

Taiwan's Via Technologies has fired back at rival Intel by filing a series of counter patent infringement lawsuits and civil actions in its home country and the US. The move steps up the legal battle that has been raging between the two chipmakers.

Richard Brown, director of marketing at Via, said: "Intel processors and the Intel Pentium 4 processor compatible 845 chipset infringe Via's patents."

Brown also claimed that Intel has not obtained a licence from Via for the Pentium 4 microprocessor or the 845 chipset. "The lawsuits will be aimed at stopping the infringement of Via's patents by these products," he said. Intel could not immediately be reached for comment.

Intel filed lawsuits last week which allege that Via's P4X266 and upcoming P4M266 chip sets violate five patents associated with Intel's Pentium 4 processor.

Via, which tripled computer chipset sales last year at Intel's expense, has already released its own chip set, the P4X266, which supports DDR (Double Data Rate). However, the company has not obtained a licence from Intel for the 400Mhz bus used with the Pentium 4. The company maintains that Intel does not have a patent that covers the bus.

Existing chipsets from Intel for its Pentium 4 processor support only RDRam (Rambus Dynamic Random Access Memory). Intel has said it will launch a new chipset later this year which will support DDR SDRAM (Double Data Rate Synchronous DRam).

Kevin Krewell, an analyst at MicroDesign Resources, said: "I believe this move by Via is just the next step in the ongoing conflict with Intel. The ultimate goal for both parties is an out-of-court settlement."

He added that the move is designed to strengthen Via's position and was taken in Asia because it is Via's "home turf".

"I believe Via is moving toward a broader licensing agreement with Intel, instead of the piecemeal way Intel licenses specific technologies, such as when Intel licensed just the Pentium III bus to Via and not the Pentium 4 bus," he said.