About five years ago the BBC carried a news story about a chap in Australia who had taken advantage of a new law which meant that patent applications only needed to innovation rather than invention. He registered a patent application for something known as a ‘circular transportation facilitation device’ or the wheel to you and me. Now, OK, that was done by an IP lawyer trying to prove a point, and the then Commissioner of Patents in Australia, Vivienne Thom, was quick to point out that all applicants have to declare they invented the thing, and so the patent in question would be invalidated as a result of this not being actually true.
There is no denying the validity of Intel’s many patents, but I would question the way they are being used as a big stick with which to beat off the smaller competition. Reports have started to circulate in Taiwan that suggest the CPU giant is putting the screws on Via Technologies to make a rapid exit from the CPU market in exchange for not stopping it manufacturing PC chipsets using Intel patented technology. According to The Inquirer the source is right there at Via but wants, perhaps wisely, to remain anonymous. You wouldn’t think that Via could be anything more than a very small fly in the Intel ointment, being primarily a chipset manufacturer after all. But Intel knows that it is very slowly losing market share to Via when it comes to the handheld, budget notebook and even media server sectors where the low cost, low heat and low power consumption of the VIA CPUs are attracting ever more attention.