HUNTSVILLE, Ala. -- Intergraph Corp. and Intel Corp. today announced they have agreed to bury the legal hatchet in their dispute over microprocessor patents. Under the settlement, Intel will pay Intergraph $300 million. In return for the payment, Intergraph will transfer ownership of patents not covered by a new cross-licensing agreement in the settlement.
Intel said it will take a one-time charge for approximately half of the $300 million payment, which will be reflected in the financial statements for the first quarter. Intel's Q1 results are scheduled to be released on Tuesday.
Last week, Intergraph announced that a court-ordered mediation had resulted in an agreement by both companies to search for a settlement in Intergraph's suit against Intel (see April 10 story). The suit was pending in U.S. District Court in Birmingham, Al.
A separate patent suit in U.S. District Court in Marshall, Tex., will proceed as planned, but the companies have agreed on liquidated damages depending upon the outcome of the case, including appeal. The liquidated damages range from zero if Intel prevails, and $150 million if Intergraph prevails and up to $250 million if Intergraph prevails on appeal, according to the settlement. All other terms of the settlement remain confidential, said the two companies.
Last summer, Intergraph filed a suit against Intel, charging that Intel's 64-bit Itanium processor technology infringed upon the company's RISC-based microprocessor patents. In November 1997, Intergraph sued Intel for infringing on its Clipper patents, which define the architecture of a microprocessor's cache memory management.
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