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posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday October 29 2019, @10:20AM   Printer-friendly
from the unfortunate-name dept.

Intel is taking legal action against a spider's web of patent holders from SoftBank-owned Fortress Investment Group and its network of subsidiaries.

The Japanese megacorp bought the group for $3.3bn in late 2017, and Chipzilla claims Fortress has become more aggressive in an effort to justify its sales price to its new owners.

Intel is suing the company under the Sherman and Clayton antitrust acts to "prevent and restrain Defendants' anticompetitive conduct".

Intel argues in court documents (PDF) that Fortress is asserting patent rights that would not have been considered enforceable by their original owners.

The documents also claim that Fortress has no interest in licensing these patents in the normal way, but prefers to boost the value of its patent portfolio by linking worthless patents with valuable ones.

This war chest of aggregated patents, Intel alleges, allows Fortress to bring case after case against a company until it folds or pays well over the market value for the intellectual property held to stop the litigation.

This strategy, Intel claims, makes it more likely that weak or unenforceable patents are found to be valid in the courts because they are aggregated with patents that may have some merit. It also gives Fortress the opportunity to gain sets of patents that could provide alternatives to each other, which damages competition in the same way that a merger of competing companies can.


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  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 29 2019, @01:24PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 29 2019, @01:24PM (#913256)

    "He got royally f-ed over by all the car manufacturers for his perfectly novel invention."
    Until he won, because he actually had a case.

    This isn't about a little guy who is willing to risk all and take on a big.

    This is about a big who is playing heads I win, tails you lose.
    If it can be proven that Fortress or maybe even Softbank is pulling the strings, then perhaps this will pierce their corporate veil and expose them to potential loss.

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  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 30 2019, @04:25AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 30 2019, @04:25AM (#913595)

    So he started suing in 1978, finally finished in 1995, - seventeen years later - and only got that far because he had $10 million to spend in legal fees, for a win of $30 million.
    His marriage broke up due to the stress, and he died of brain cancer a few years later.

    Sounds like a win to me. /sarcasm.