Broadcom, Intel Settle Patent Dispute

Intel Corp., the world’s largest chip maker, said Monday that it settled a patent-infringement dispute with Broadcom Corp. over graphics chips sold alongside Intel’s microprocessors.

The agreement follows a pretrial ruling this month by U.S. District Judge David Folsom in Texarkana, Texas, that neither Intel nor Broadcom infringed some patents controlled by the other.

That ruling resolved most of the legal issues between the two companies and led them to drop their disagreement over a remaining Intel patent, said Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy.

The companies have yet to file court papers agreeing to the settlement. Terms of the settlement weren’t disclosed. An official with Irvine-based Broadcom didn’t return calls seeking comment.

Broadcom sued Santa Clara-based Intel in November 2001, claiming its revenue was hurt by Intel’s sale of motherboards containing the graphics chips along with microprocessors such as the Pentium III. Broadcom, the biggest maker of cable-modem chips, competes with Intel in making chips for computer-networking gear.

Intel and Broadcom are scheduled to begin a retrial in September in Wilmington, Del., in an unrelated patent dispute.

In that case, Intel claims that just about every product made by Broadcom infringed one or more Intel patents and it is seeking $82 million in damages. Intel lost the case in a December 2001 trial and the suit was revived by the trial judge in February.

Broadcom has denied the allegations. The company said in a statement that the new trial was ordered only because “the jury failed to check the appropriate box in a very complicated verdict form.”

Intel shares fell 60 cents to $24.06 and Broadcom fell 39 cents to $25.17, both on Nasdaq.