SAN JOSE, Calif. -- The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) has filed a patent suit against Intel Corp. over microprocessor technology.
WARF, a private, non-profit corporation that is a supporting organization to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, filed a complaint against Intel in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin.
WARF seeks compensation in the suit. It is asking the court to declare that Intel is infringing on its patent. The court also will be asked to enjoin Intel from selling the product, and to order Intel to pay damages to WARF and cover WARF's legal fees.
The foundation's complaint identifies the Intel Core2 Duo microarchitecture as infringing WARF's U.S. Patent No. 5,781,752, entitled "Table Based Data Speculation Circuit for Parallel Processing Computer."
The technology, patented in 1998, was developed by four researchers at the UW-Madison. "The technology significantly enhances opportunities for instruction level parallelism in modern processors, thereby increasing their execution speed," said Michael Falk, WARF general counsel, in a statement.
According to Falk, WARF contacted Intel in 2001, and made repeated attempts, including meeting face-to-face with company representatives, to offer legal licensing opportunities for the technology.
"We are disappointed with Intel's lack of response in resolving this matter, and while we were not anxious to use the courts to enforce our patent rights, we have no other recourse given our duty to protect the intellectual property of our inventors and the university," he said.
In 2005, IBM Corp. reached an out-of-court settlement with the University of Wisconsin and WARF over alleged patent infringement in chip manufacturing, according to reports.
Meanwhile, Intel is also involved in various processor suits against Advanced Micro Devices Inc.
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