By Joey Gardiner, 19 April 1999 17:55
NEWS Intel came under fire today after reports in the Wall Street Journal that the company behaved in a 'totally inappropriate' manner while defending a US patent infringement lawsuit. Critics are saying the chip giant is using a subsidiary to scupper the trial. Illinois law firm, TechSearch, filed the suit against Intel in June 1998 after the company claimed Intel had infringed a patent it bought from bankrupt chip company, International Meta Systems. In a separate legal action, a US company - Maelen - has been fighting to have the International Meta Systems' patent sale declared invalid on the grounds that it was sold for too little. Intel has now admitted it owns Maelen - something it originally failed to declare. An Intel spokeswoman denied the company had behaved "in any way illegally or unethically in this matter". She further accused TechSearch of being a predatory firm, who had established a "familiar pattern of buying patents from financially distressed companies, to then extort money from larger companies". She said Intel would continue its "vigorous defence" of the infringement suit.
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