A well-known patent litigation court in Texas ruled that Intel had infringed the rights of VLSI Technologies. The Intel attorney thinks the claims are “hair-raising” and the European company is a patent troll.

The Federal District Court in Waco, West Texas, has ordered Intel to pay $ 2.18 billion in damages numbers. The jury saw the rights of two patents violated, which deal with the power supply and clock modification in computer chips. Experts suspect that this case is far from over. Intel can now ask the judge to determine that the jury misapplied the law. Many patent cases are overturned on appeal if the lawyers can prove that the technical aspects were not understood by the jury. The processor market leader can also challenge the judgment and has already announced it. Should a judge uphold the verdict, it would be one of the largest patent rulings in US history.

Is VLSI a patent troll?

Intel had argued that they were using their own, better methods. VLSI Technology is just four years old and has neither products nor sources of income – apart from patent lawsuits. The accusation behind it: VLSI is said to be a patent troll. These are companies that buy up old patents and then warn others, request licenses or assert claims in Texas courts. The Philipps spin-off NXP Semiconductors originally owned the patents and passed them on to VLSI, for which NXP will receive part of the proceeds, says Intel’s lawyer William Lee. He said: “You pulled two patents out of the drawer that you haven’t used for ten years and said, ‘We’d like two billion for that.'”

On the trail of VLSI

The original VLSI Technologies was once a semiconductor developer and was involved in the founding of ARM. In 1999 it was taken over by NXP Semiconductors, now Europe’s largest chip manufacturer. According to this, VLSI would not be four, but 42 years old. However, there are voices who suspect that the semiconductor manufacturer has spun off VLSI one more time. This time the company should flush money into the group’s coffers via patent lawsuits.

declare patents invalid? Not with Judge Albright

Judge Alan Albright is no stranger. After being nominated by President Donald Trump, he went on a tour of the country in order to “boost business” (according to the Waco Tribune). Albright promoted the jurisdiction location and created a number of local rules that speed up litigation times significantly. It does not suspend proceedings that parallel a patent application for invalidity (IPR – inter partes review). As a result of this and the accelerated procedure, applicants have no chance of having a patent declared invalid before the procedure has already been concluded. In short: patent holders and patent trolls feel very comfortable in Waco. Since Albright has sat there, the city has also been called “the capital of American patent disputes” in legal circles. Their number at the District Court in Waco has increased by 2,682 percent since Albright took office.

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