– A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday revived a lawsuit brought by patent owner VLSI Technology against Intel over semiconductor innovations, giving VLSI a new chance to win damages from the chipmaker in their multi-billion-dollar patent dispute. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit overturned a California federal judge’s ruling that Intel did not infringe a VLSI patent and said the question must go to a jury. Previous jury trials in the companies’ long-running dispute resulted in $2.2 billion and $949 million verdicts for VLSI in Texas. The Federal Circuit later reversed the $2.2 billion verdict, and Intel has challenged the $949 million verdict.
Spokespeople for Intel and VLSI did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the Federal Circuit’s decision on Tuesday.
Patent holding company VLSI is owned by investment funds managed by Fortress Investment Group. A consortium led by Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment Company acquired a majority stake in Fortress from Japan-based SoftBank Group Corp in 2024.
VLSI has sued Intel in multiple U.S. courts for allegedly infringing patents covering semiconductor technology. It sued Intel in California in 2017, and U.S. District Judge Beth Freeman closed the case in 2024 after finding that Intel’s chips did not infringe a VLSI data-processing patent.
A three-judge Federal Circuit panel threw out Freeman’s noninfringement ruling on Tuesday and sent the case back to the California court.
The case is VLSI Technology LLC v. Intel Corp, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, No. 24-1772.
For VLSI: Lucas Walker of MoloLamken
For Intel: Dominic Massa of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr
Read more:
Intel hit with $949 mln U.S. verdict in VLSI computer chip patent trial
Intel wins US appeal to overturn $2.18 billion VLSI patent verdict
Intel wins jury trial over patent licenses in $3 billion VLSI fight (Reporting by Blake Brittain in Washington)
