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Intel Ordered by Texas Court to Pay $2.18 Billion for VLSI Patent Infringement

posted by martyb on Wednesday March 03 2021, @10:12PM   

takyon writes:

Texas court orders Intel to pay $2.18 billion for two patent infringements

The two patents are owned by VLSI and relate to ways to manage CPU clock speeds and minimum voltages for memory. VLSI has an additional six patent violation claims against Intel, which could amount to $11 billion in damages. Intel denies all allegations and is confident it can avoid these fees through future appeals.

[...] Waco Tribune-Herald and Tom's Hardware note that one of the patents (759) relates to clock speed management and is supposed to represent $1.5 billion in damages, while the other one (373) describes a method to reduce the minimum voltage for memory and totals just $675 million in damages. The other six patent violations are supposed to amount to $7.1 billion, and Intel must also consider future royalties, attorney's fees, interests, procedure costs etc., which could amount to $1.7 billion if VLSI manages to win the entire case.

Another Texas jury weighing in on patents.

Also at Wccftech.

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Original Submission

• Re:Texas should sescede Re:Texas should sescede (Score: 4, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Thursday March 04 2021, @12:13AM (1 child)

  by Runaway1956 (2926) on Thursday March 04 2021, @12:13AM (#1119649) Homepage Journal

  I thought that venue shopping, especially in East Texas had been addressed. Apparently, the ruling against venue shopping was less effective than we had hoped.

  https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/05/supreme-court-makes-it-much-harder-for-patent-trolls-to-sue-in-east-texas/ [arstechnica.com]

  In a unanimous decision, the justices held that the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which handles all patent appeals, has been using the wrong standard to decide where a patent lawsuit can be brought. Today's Supreme Court ruling in TC Heartland v. Kraft Foods enforces a more strict standard for where cases can be filed. It overturns a looser rule that the Federal Circuit has used since 1990.

  https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/10/patent-cases-in-east-texas-plunge-more-than-60-percent/ [arstechnica.com]

  New lawsuits are down—way down—in the mostly rural district that was once the national hotspot for patent disputes.

  For several years, the Eastern District of Texas hosted more patent lawsuits than any other judicial district in the country. Last year, East Texas saw more patent lawsuits filed than the next four judicial districts combined. But in May, the Supreme Court sharply limited where patent owners can choose to file their lawsuits, in a case called TC Heartland. That's leading to a sharp change in the geography of patent litigation.

  https://www.dallasnews.com/business/technology/2017/05/23/how-patent-suits-shaped-a-small-east-texas-town-before-supreme-court-s-ruling/ [dallasnews.com]

  How patent suits shaped a small East Texas town before Supreme Court's ruling
  The steady stream of cases brought big companies like Samsung and Google to the small community, but it also brought criticism of a court that was seen as too friendly to patent trolls.

  https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20170522/10263437420/sorry-east-texas-supreme-court-slams-door-patent-jurisdiction-shopping.shtml [techdirt.com]

  Sorry East Texas: Supreme Court Slams The Door On Patent Jurisdiction Shopping

  Another Supreme Court case on patents, and another complete smackdown of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC), the court that is supposed to be the "expert" on patent cases. This morning the ruling on the TC Heartland case came out, and it could help put an end to jurisdiction shopping for patent cases. As you've probably heard, for years now patent trolls and other aggressive patent litigants have been filing their cases in East Texas, as it's become a jurisdiction that is ridiculous friendly to patent holders. The towns of Marshall and Tyler, Texas have practically built up industries around the fact that they are "patent friendly" jurisdictions. In the past few years, a second favored jurisdiction has popped up: Delaware, after a few academic studies showed that the courts there may have been even more friendly than East Texas. The TC Heartland case was about a case filed in Delaware, and raised the issue of whether or not this kind of patent forum shopping was okay. CAFC, in its usual CAFC manner, said "sure, that's great, we love jurisdiction shopping and have since our 1990 ruling in VE Holding v. Johnson Gas. This was kind of ironic, as one of the key justifications given for setting up CAFC in the first place was to put an end to jurisdiction shopping in patent cases.

  There are loopholes, I'm sure. Texas Instruments isn't the only tech company with headquarters in or near Dallas, or northeast Texas. Some companies have legitimate reason to file in East Texas. And, I suppose a patent troll with offices in East Texas will take advantage of that.

  One thing that I find mildly surprising, is that this suit was in Waco, rather than Marshall. When I read the title, I just assumed that the same cast of characters from Marshall were involved.

  --
  Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.

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• Re:Texas should sescede (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 04 2021, @12:26AM

  by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 04 2021, @12:26AM (#1119652)

  Nice post. Thanks.

  Parent