Transmeta sues Intel

Transmeta this week announced that it has filed a lawsuit against Intel Corporation in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware for infringement of ten Transmeta U.S. patents covering computer architecture and power efficiency technologies.

The complaint charges that Intel has infringed and is infringing Transmeta's patents by making and selling a variety of microprocessor products including at least Intel's Pentium III, Pentium 4, Pentium M, Core and Core 2 product lines. The complaint requests an injunction against Intel's continuing sales of infringing products as well as monetary damages, including reasonable royalties on infringing products, treble damages and attorneys' fees.

"Transmeta has developed a strong portfolio of intellectual property rights to capture and protect our proud legacy of developing advanced computing and microprocessor technologies," said John O'Hara Horsley, executive vice president and general counsel at Transmeta. "Intel has acknowledged that Transmeta has been an innovative spur to some of Intel's own development efforts, roadmap decisions and new product successes. At the same time, Intel has practiced multiple Transmeta inventions in its major microprocessor product lines. After endeavoring to negotiate with Intel for fair compensation for the continued use of our intellectual property, we have concluded that we must turn to the judicial system to be fairly compensated for our inventions."

"Transmeta's commitment to technological innovation has yielded highly valuable intellectual property. As a part of our business decision last year to increasingly focus on monetizing our IP through technology licensing, we understood that in some cases we might need to pursue enforcement through the courts," said Arthur L. Swift, president and CEO of Transmeta. "We believe that the action we have taken today is an appropriate step to return value to our stockholders from our investments over the past decade."