A federal judge has asked the chief executives of Intel and
Intergraph to appear in US District Court, Marshall, Texas, in a
last attempt to settle a patent infringement lawsuit. According to
media reports, the executives were requested to attend a mediation
session on 26th September.
The case was filed by Intergraph, which alleged that Intel’s
Itanium chip infringed two patents covering parallel processor
computing owned by Intergraph. The two companies made their
presentations before the Texas court in July, and they submitted
summary arguments last month.
The District Court judge indicated that, if the two sides cannot
reach an agreement, he will rule on the case next month.
Both companies have already agreed that, if Intergraph wins the
case, Intel will pay up to $150 million. It was also agreed that,
if Intel appeals the decision and loses the appeal, Intergraph will
collect an additional $100 million.
Intel has already paid $300 million to Intergraph to settle a
1997 lawsuit over other patent disputes.
