Court asks Bush to help in LG cafuffle

THE US Supreme Court has asked the Bush administration if it should intervene in a row between LG Electronics against a group of Taiwanese computer manufacturers.

According to AP, the robed not wigged ones are not sure if they should make any rulings in the case, which could have a big impact on any company with global supply chains.

They have asked the US Solicitor General to offer an opinion on the matter. LG wants to take Quanta, Spectre Technologies and several others to the cleaners for installing chips bought from Intel into computers made, under contract, for Dell, HP and Gateway.

The computer manufactures say that since they bought the chips from Intel they couldn't be done for patent infringement if they were using them as intended. But LG says it only licensed Intel on the condition that the chips not be combined with non-Intel components.

The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled in LG's favour in July 2006. Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Gateway told the court that the Federal Circuit's decision essentially allows LG to collect royalties twice on the same patent.

More here.