Taipei, Taiwan, 22 December 2002 - VIA Technologies, Inc., a leading innovator and developer of silicon chip technologies and PC platform solutions, today announced that the English Court of Appeal ruled today on a key aspect of the legal dispute between Intel Corporation ("Intel") and VIA Technologies, Inc. ("VIA").
The dispute arose when Intel issued proceedings in 2001 alleging that VIA chipset and processor products infringed five Intel patents. VIA alleged as one part of its defence to those proceedings that Intel was and is acting anti-competitively in the chipset and processor markets, and so was not entitled to enforce its patents against VIA. In April of this year, Intel applied to the English High Court for summary dismissal of VIA"s competition law based defence on a summary basis and was successful. VIA subsequently appealed that decision to the Court of Appeal, which has today rendered its verdict.