Intergraph sued when, after several years of working with Intel,
in 1996 Intel began making what Intergraph considered unreasonable
demands for royalty-free rights to Intergraph patents already being
used in Intel microprocessors. When Intergraph refused, it alleged
that Intel abused its monopoly power by engaging in a series of
illegal coercive actions intended to force Intergraph to give Intel
access to the patents. It sued in 1997, claiming illegal coercive
behavior, patent infringement, and antitrust violations.
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, stated, ”Intel
is not licensed under these patents.” In its ruling, the Court
stated that Intergraph received “the full and exclusive right,
title, and interest” to its so-called Clipper patents. The Court
went on to find that no contract or other document or other
evidence supports Intel's interpretation that Intergraph's patents
were encumbered, and that Intel's interpretation was “too strained
to be supported.”
An Intel spokesman said that the ruling does not mean that the
court found that Intel was actually infringing the patents. He
added: “We do not believe the patents in question are valid or have
been infringed.”
Intergraph CEO James Taylor said:
“Based on this ruling, we can now pursue our
case to receive a royalty for Intel's use of our technology in
their Pentium products. The Court's ruling clears the way for us to
pursue recovering the value taken from our employees, customers and
shareholders by Intel's actions."
