Intel not guilty of damaging Via balloons

According to a report in Digitimes, four defendants were acquitted of charges that they caused Via promotional balloons to be downed at the show.

But Via immediately said that it would appeal the decision, which came on New Year's Eve. The wire said that the court was presented with documents signed by Jetway and Fastfame agreeing to remove the balloons from their stands at the show.

Via claims that the documents were easy to obtain because Intel used its competitive power to force these firms to sign the agreements.

There are numerous legal fights going on between Via and Intel worldwide, with each firm claiming the other is contravening patents on Pentium 4 technology.

The balloon incident happened in June 2001 when Via spent marketing money designing floating devices promoting its P4X266 chipset for the Pentium 4. It claimed it had spent nearly $9,000 on designing the balloons.

Intel was alleged to have claimed at the time that the Pentium 4 chipset was not authorised for Via to deploy. But Via said it had paid the organisers of the show money and had permission to fly the balloons. According to reports at the time, Intel called in the cops claiming the balloons were illegal objects. Then the coppers interviewed Via's contractors about the balloons. Not long after that, Intel started legal action against Via alleging patent infringement. µ

See Also
Via's ballooning problems
Intel faces further FTC probe in Taiwan
Via plays David to the Intel goliath
Via has tapes of Chinese Intel damage
Taiwan mobo vendors still terrified of Intel
Computex not all boring chips
Computex 2002 Complete coverage