Intel to appeal unfavorable verdict against Intergraph

Intel to appeal unfavorable verdict against Intergraph
HOUSTON--A U.S. district court here today barred Intel Corp. from selling its 64-bit line of microprocessors as a result of an unfavorable ruling, but then suspended the order to allow the company to appeal the decision, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.

Judge T. John Ward agreed to suspend the injunction until Nov. 29 to allow Intel to settle with Intergraph Corp. of Huntsville, Ala., according to the report. An Intel spokesman said the company would contest the infringement before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, Washington, D.C., according to the report.

On Oct. 10, a U.S. district court in Texas ruled that Intel's 64-bit processor lines infringe upon Intergraph's RISC technology for defining key aspects of parallel instruction computing. Under terms of the settlement, the Texas Court's finding of infringement obligates Intel to pay Intergraph $150 million in damages.

Upon payment of the initial $150 million in damages, Intel then has three options: pay an additional $100 million to Intergraph and receive a license to the PIC patents; appeal the district court decision and, if they lose the appeal, pay Intergraph an additional $100 million; or try to design around the infringement.

The court also determined that Intergraph is entitled to an injunction on Intel's new family of 64-bit Itanium or Itanium 2 processors (see Oct. 10 ).