VIA sues Apple for patent infringement

TAIWANESE CHIP DESIGNER Via has aimed its lawyers at Apple with a complaint about its alleged infringement of three patents.

The firm said it was using its considerable patent portfolio against Apple and would cite examples of patent infringement in the Iphone, Ipad, Ipod, Apple TV and software.

It filed its complaint with the US International Trade Commission (ITC), an agency that possibly devotes a whole warehouse to complaints about smartphones and alleged patent infringement, many of which are from or about Apple.

"VIA has built up an extensive IP portfolio consisting of over 5,000 patents as a result of significant investments in world class technology research and development," commented Wenchi Chen, CEO of Via Technologies. "We are determined to protect our interests and the interests of our stockholders when our patents are infringed upon."

Since this is Via, the patents cover microprocessor functionality and they are US Patent 6253312, "Method and apparatus for double operand load" and US Patents 6253311 and 6754810, "An instruction set for bi-directional conversion and transfer of integer and floating point data".

HTC, which is majority owned by Cher Wang, who coincidentally owns Via, is also suing Apple and is seeking a ban on imports of its products. Funnily enough, if you are a patent lawyer, Apple is suing Samsung and HTC over alleged patent infringement, and Samsung, HTC and now also Via are suing Apple. µ