Intel files an Anti-trust Case Against SoftBank-owned Tech Firm

[btarunr]

Intel filed an anti-trust lawsuit against Fortress Investment Group, a firm owned by Japan's SoftBank, over alleged malpractices with their patents. Intel alleges that the company stockpiled patents to make a living out of IP disputes with other companies, including Intel. The complaint filed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Jose alleges that Fortress bought up over 1,000 U.S. technology patents, some of which include patents from NXP Semiconductors. It's now using these patents to get Intel to pay up a royalty on every processor sold since 2011. SoftBank bought Fortress in 2017 for USD $3.3 billion as part of a massive takeover of the tech world. One of SoftBank's other priced possessions include ARM.

The lawsuit alleges a motive behind Fortress's behavior. "One way in which Fortress has tried to turn around its performance and justify SoftBank's investment in it is through increased speculation on patent assertions," the lawsuit says. Intel accused Fortress of patent-trolling, alleging that the company's move to soak up tech patents constitutes anti-competitive behavior as it's driven by the idea that the patents would cost less than what other tech companies would pay up to avert an IP lawsuit.



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[Vya Domus]

anti-competitive behavior

I believe them though, they are the champions of anti-competitive behavior after all so they should know.

 

[Valantar]

Intel filing an anti-trust suit against another company? We have truly entered Bizarroland.

Not that patent trolls don't need to be rooted out and stomped on, but this is a bit silly.

 

[Tsukiyomi91]

Intel had to stoop this low just to fill their bottom line... Just disgusting & pathetic.

 

[Kapone33]

Was there not a lawsuit against Texas Instruments from Intel touting the same thing a few years ago?

 

[Slizzo]

Intel had to stoop this low just to fill their bottom line... Just disgusting & pathetic.

I don't know. Buying up a bunch of companies then trying to sue Intel for all processors sold from 2011 onward sounds a bit excessive.

 

[The Egg]

Intel had to stoop this low just to fill their bottom line... Just disgusting & pathetic.

You either didn't read any of the post, or don't understand what's going on. The other company is a patent troll, trying to collect royalties on every CPU sold despite having done nothing (except buy a portfolio of patents). If the patent troll is successful, you will be paying more money for any CPU that you buy (because I'm sure they won't just stop at Intel).

You should be pulling hard for Intel here.

 

[jeffj7]

Im not intels biggest fan, but i hope they crush em. they are big enough to.

 

[robot zombie]

Kinda fortunate for everyone they went after Intel. Draws what they're doing out in the open. They could've gone after smaller fish for years more and slid by.

Also, a good rule for patent trolling is don't go after big megacorperations who stand a decent chance at publicly obliterating you..

 

[thesmokingman]

I lol'd at this news!

I believe them though, they are the champions of anti-competitive behavior after all so they should know.

Reminds me of the time they paid billions to redirect sales away from their competitors...

 

[AsRock]

I believe them though, they are the champions of anti-competitive behavior after all so they should know.

Yeah so they should know how it all works by now


What goes around comes around.

 

[robot zombie]

Yeah so they should know how it all works by now


What goes around comes around.

Indeed.

Though I think it's all a cesspool.

 

[holyprof]

"The pot calling the kettle black" is a proverbial idiom that may be of Spanish origin, of which English versions began to appear in the first half of the 17th century. The idiom is glossed in the original sources as being used of a person who is guilty of the very thing of which they accuse another and is thus an example of psychological projection, or hypocrisy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_pot_calling_the_kettle_black

 

[ChosenName]

Reminds me of the time they paid billions to redirect sales away from their competitors...

.... and the time when the Intel C Compiler code dispatcher was found to be sending CPUs without "GenuineIntel" as the vendor string down deliberately sub-optimal code paths....

 

[Totally]

.... and the time when the Intel C Compiler code dispatcher was found to be sending CPUs without "GenuineIntel" as the vendor string down deliberately sub-optimal code paths....

... and the time they had special "rebates/discounts" for OEM who maintained a product portfolio that leaned heavily toward Intel aka AMD tax.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

Fortress was a known patent troll, not surprising SoftBank continue the practice.

 

[Aquinus]

Intel is far from perfect, but I honestly think that their concern has merit. It wouldn't have been the first time SoftBank or one of its child companies has done what Intel is accusing them of doing.

Intel said Fortress’ efforts to gather patents constituted anticompetitive behavior because they were driven by the idea that its purchases would cost less than what technology companies would pay to avoid lawsuits.

While Intel as a company is certainly no angel, I don't condone purchasing patents in order to extract money out of other companies. I think it's a disgusting tactic.

 

[R-T-B]

Was there not a lawsuit against Texas Instruments from Intel touting the same thing a few years ago?

Yeah. It killed their OMAP chipset IIRC, and gave qualcomm cellphone dominance. Nice going, Intel.

Intel is far from perfect, but I honestly think that their concern has merit. It wouldn't have been the first time SoftBank or one of its child companies has done what Intel is accusing them of doing.

Yeah, to me this sounds more legit than the whole Texas Instruments nonsense.

 

[voltage]

Intel has a case, softbank playing dirty

 

[geon2k2]

When the thieves yell for other thieves.

Intel market share dropped below 80% (but only to 77%), since the resurgence of AMD, however they are still a monopoly.
Government should investigate first the X86 perpetual licence that they have, which extended well over the initial 15 year grant suggested by the patent law.

I get it there where few extensions to the tech since then, however the most important update (x86-64) was introduced by AMD not Intel.

 

[Vya Domus]

When the thieves yell for other thieves.

Intel market share dropped below 80% (but only to 77%), since the resurgence of AMD, however they are still a monopoly.
Government should investigate first the X86 perpetual licence that they have, which extended well over the initial 15 year grant suggested by the patent law.

x86 itself is in fact open, you can't do much with it however as it does not include many extensions which are owned either by Intel or AMD.

 

[Totally]

x86 itself is in fact open, you can't do much with it however as it does not include many extensions which are owned either by Intel or AMD.

x86 is not open or open as long as you have a lisence, proven when Intel made it clear that VIA's x86 lisence was not transferrable when Nvidia was trying to purchase it for that reason in order to enter the x86 market. Killing the deal, and eventually leading to Tegra. Good thing they did that because Tegra was awesome. /s

 

[Vya Domus]

x86 is not open or open as long as you have a lisence, proven when Intel made it clear that VIA's x86 lisence was not transferrable when Nvidia was trying to purchase it for that reason in order to enter the x86 market. Killing the deal, and eventually leading to Tegra.

At the time VIA was still under Intel's licensing agreement but that's irrelevant VIA had nothing to do with the settlement Nvidia had with Intel as Nvidia never intended to buy VIA. What they actually wanted to do is develop a way to transcribe x86 code such that their proprietary chips could run it without the need to licence anything which Intel prohibited claiming that's a form of "architectural emulation". As I said you can't do anything with the portion of x86 that is open, thus you need to deal with either Intel or AMD to get anything remotely useful today.

ARM based Tegra already existed by that point, Denver was supposed to be that x86-to-ARM chip which ended up being just an ARM core.