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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.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday October 30 2019, @03:48PM
I blame my safety glasses, along with a half dozen other factors, for my cut injury.
Don't cut when you're tired.
Don't cut when you're angry.
Don't cut when you're tired and angry and it's getting dark.
Don't cut when ... and you've only recently started to lose your "reading vision".
Don't cut when ... and your safety glasses are foggy, but that's hard to tell because of reduced vision in the twilight.
Don't cut when ... and the blade is set for 1.5" thick wood, but you're making 3/4" thick pieces to fit in window tracks.
Don't cut when ... and you're frustrated because it's the third trip back to the saw to get the piece to fit properly.
And, the only one that really matters:
Don't cut when ... and your thumbtip is going to catch the blade as you push the piece through.
Had just gotten home from work and the kids were having a party opening the porch windows and pushing out the screens so they could go run around outside, never did finish making the blocks for the window tracks, and didn't have to... hours spent sitting in the car while Dad was in the emergency room / surgery / therapy appointments seemed to get the message across.
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