Intel settles EPIC Intergraph dispute

By Alun Williams

Posted on 30 Mar 2004 at 17:38

Intel has settled the long running patent dispute with Intergraph, which involved the development of Itanium processor technology.

In return for an agreed financial payment, Intel will now receive a license to use Intergraph's PIC technology. This became a component of Intel's IA-64 EPIC (explicitly parallel instruction computing) architecture, which is used by the Itanium server chip.

The legal fortunes of the case have swung backwards and forwards with victories for one party being overturned in appeals courts for the other party. The last time we reported on this case - Appeals court overturns Intergraph's $150mn win over Intel - a Texas court ruled back in Intel's favour.

Also complicating the issue was the involvement of third parties such as HP, Dell and Gateway.

While Dell has claimed that Intel had agreed to indemnify it against patent disputes, Intel contested this point. The chip giant, however, has moved this disagreement 'off line'. While still stating that no such indemnity agreement exists, Intel says it has removed the matter from the courts and will 'resolve the disagreement privately'.

Under the terms of the deal, Dell is given a licence to all Intergraph-owned patents, covering past and future Dell products. The settlement also includes a covenant by Intergraph not to sue any other Intel customers for products that include Intel microprocessors, chipsets or motherboards.

In terms of the financial settlement with Intergraph, Intel will pay $225 million. A sum of $125 million will be paid by 5 April 2004, followed by $25 million in each of the succeeding four quarters.

See also:

Appeals court overturns Intergraph's $150mn win over Intel

Intergraph sues HP, Dell and Gateway over cache technology

Intel faces ban on Itanium

Patents court gets picky with Intel

Intergraph Alleges Intel Bullying Has Pushed it Out of the PC Business