RSSTransmeta Sues Intel for Patent Infringement
By Scott M. Fulton, III | Published October 12, 2006, 12:41 PM
Though the precise details remain uncertain this morning until legal documents are finally released, processor producer Transmeta filed suit against Intel in US District Court in Delaware. Although few details are known at this time, analysts today are speculating that based on Transmeta's current product line, the patents it claims Intel infringed upon may concern power management techniques in semiconductors.
Weighing against that argument, however, is Transmeta's own statement this morning, saying the technologies in question stretch far back in Intel's history, dating back to the Pentium III. That chip was first unveiled in 1999, during an era long before power consumption in consumer CPUs was considered a critical issue. At that time, Transmeta was barely a two-year-old company, with much of its operations conducted in secret, and with an original goal to produce Intel-compatible chips.
Today, Transmeta is seeking no less than an injunction against the sale of Intel CPUs. After that watershed event in history takes place, monetary damages might possibly go unnoticed, along with perhaps a few simultaneous earthquakes.
In a statement this morning, Transmeta's executive vice president implied Intel may have made statements crediting Transmeta for some of its design inspirations. Then the CEO, Arthur L. Swift, basically stated his company is basically in the lawsuit business now, as part of a refocus of the company away from chip production.
"As a part of our business decision last year to increasingly focus on monetizing our IP through technology licensing," said Swift, "we understood that in some cases we might need to pursue enforcement through the courts."
This morning, Intel spokesperson Chuck Malloy told BetaNews, "Intel is continuing to study the complaint, but after preliminary analysis, the company disputes the claims of infringement and plans to conduct a vigorous defense." Malloy may as well have added that his company, perhaps unwillingly, is entering the vigorous defense business.
Every company in the high-tech sector is suing each other, and the Transmeta news is no big deal. If you look at the "damages" Transmeta is asking, you know that it's not about patent infringement, but $$$$.
Also, Transmeta used to make some really good stuff. But now their stock is floats around $1.50 a share (from $40 a share several years ago), which indicates that they haven't got much going.
This case reminds me of the BS between Creative and Apple, as Creative got free money for "nothing."
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|"After that watershed event in history takes place, monetary damages might possibly go unnoticed, along with perhaps a few simultaneous earthquakes."
"Then the CEO, Arthur L. Swift, basically stated his company is basically in the lawsuit business now"
Do BetaNews "journalists" actually get paid for writing this crap? I certainly hope not.
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|Funny, I thought the same thing.
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|This story is sort of lame, I mean this company almost 7 years later brings this subject up, clearly it was only a matter of time till somebody Intel thought of a way to reduce power consumption.
Unless Transmeta has a working product, I don't see how they can get Intel to stop selling chips that have nothing to do with the case.
I am sure Intel is more then willing to stop selling Pent III Chips :
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|Wow, Transmeta, that's a blast from the past. I remember reading about them in 1999 about how their Crusoe chip was going to revolutionize the computer industry. I always wondered what happend to them.
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|Their "crusoe" chip revolutionized the industry, they went to lunch...
...and never came back.
It's all an Intel Conspiracy, you see.
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|to my knowledge they've always been around, and always made chips. And kept making new ones.
They, like many other companies, often are behind the scenes too much
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|Transmeta is seeking no less than an injunction against the sale of Intel CPUs.
Yeah. Don't hold your breath. I can't imagine that'd go over to well damn near anywhere.
Let me be one of the first to welcome SCO jr. to the playing field.
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|Then the CEO, Arthur L. Swift, basically stated his company is basically in the lawsuit business now, as part of a refocus of the company away from chip production.
Not that I disagree with the sentiment, but the author of this article really seems quite biased.
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|Sorry, but since when does the Patent and licensing business *not* equal the lawsuit business?
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|There are plenty of companies that conduct patenting and licensing activities that do not solely rely on lawsuits for their bread and butter.
Note: Acacia and Eolas would not be good examples, but that is almost what the article writer is likening Transmeta to.
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|There are plenty of companies that conduct patenting and licensing activities that do not solely rely on lawsuits for their bread and butter.
Please do inform us all of what *other* forms of revenue Transmeta has at the moment...
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|Some company somewhere has probably licensed something from them. The main point is, going from the content of the article, the author seems to make a giant leap from ip to lawsuits.
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|I really don't see it as a giant leap.... more like a slippery slope....
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|This sounds like SCO - if your market is steadily shrinking, it makes sense to play "the mouse that roared" and augment your income by suing your more successful competitors with deep pockets.
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|I'd look into it a bit more than that.
Transmeta has done tons of R&D on low-power CPUs and all sorts of other CPU-related areas. Okay, so they didn't have the cash to build a huge operation and make a name for themselves, but that doesn't mean they have to stand by and let someone else use their ideas, does it?
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|This may not even be about power management. Transmeta CPU's have never even been directly compatible with Intel CPU's at the hardware level. They use emulation just like Intel's Itanium processors to translate x86 instructions into something the Transmeta CPU can understand. I highly doubt Transmeta was the original inventor of any of the technology used in the 6th generation of the x86 architecture.
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|This should be interesting to see where this goes...
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|Its not betanews...
Its Patent Infringement News
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|Maybe it is betanews, "Though the precise details remain uncertain this morning until legal documents are finally released."
You could say that the "details" are in "beta" until they are "finally released"!
Lol, don't mind me, I've not had enough coffee today...
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|LOL, good spin...
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