Intel and Transmeta settle patent dispute for $250M

Looks like it's all hugs and kisses and millions of dollars in licensing fees for Intel and Transmeta after all, as the two companies finalized a settlement agreement in their year-long patent dispute today. The agreement calls for Intel to license Transmeta's patents for $150M upfront and $20M a year for the next five years, and Intel can't do anything except pout if Transmeta decides to license its LongRun tech to any other company at the same time. That's a fun little chunk of change for Transmeta, which was about to get de-listed from the NASDAQ back in March before turning things around -- and getting a $7.5M vote of confidence from AMD. No word on how the company plans to serve its two competing masters, but it's got to feel nice to be wanted.

[Thanks, Jon]

[andy @ Oct 24th 2007 4:33PM]

Isn't Transmetta the "patent troll" with "completely invalid" patents making "totally baseless" claims of patent infringement against Intel?


Why in the world would Intel pay 250mil for such rights if they could prove them invalid for an average cost of less than 1mil?

[salientarbiter @ Oct 24th 2007 4:59PM]

No, they had legit research and patents. Just people tend not to think so, since they were almost bankrupt a while back. This is good news for those innovators, though.

[salientarbiter @ Oct 24th 2007 5:01PM]

in fact, I kinda feel bad for the guys.

[andy @ Oct 24th 2007 5:19PM]

Sarcasm man.

People said the same thing about Z4 technologies, but they were actually a company that was put out by MSFT and the other big guys because they just stole the Z4 tech rather than license it. Then there's MercExchange. They were put out by Ebay, and ebay did sucessfully steal their tech (no injunction and forced royalty). I'm just sick about hearing of "patent trolls" every time one of the big boys gets sued, when the "troll" would be practicing the invention if the big boys hadn't stolen their time, effort, and innovation.

[Matt @ Oct 24th 2007 11:06PM]

On the whole I love intel products, and I think they do a great job being number one in their industry. But to tell you the truth, they probably didn't blink twice shelling out $250M. Every time they build a fab plant the construction costs are in the billions, I can't imagine that paying for a license that helps their product reign supreme is a real hardship.