Intel has a ban on selling processors on the German market

Even the company Intel recently found itself on the list of culprits of illegal use of protected technology. Namely, this is accused of copying R2 Semiconductor's proprietary technology.

The Regional Court of DÃ¼sseldorf recently ruled that Intel infringed a patent held by US-based R2 Semiconductor and then issued an injunction against the sale of certain previous-generation Intel processors in Germany. Financial Times reporter reported. Dell and HP devices may also be affected. The ruling prohibits the sale of select Intel processors and devices based on Intel processors in this country. Intel believes that its products do not infringe R2 Semiconductor's patents, and has asked the German patent court to invalidate the patent.

The aforementioned European patent covers voltage regulation technology. R2 Semiconductor claims that Intel's Ice Lake, Tiger Lake, Alder Lake and Xeon Scalable “Ice Lake Server” Core processors, as well as consumer laptops and servers with these processors, infringe its patents. Intel revealed last September that R2 Semiconductor had asked the court to stop the sale of products powered by these processors and to recall products with these processors. Intel argued that "an injunction would be a disproportionate remedy".

The German court has for the time being issued a legal ban on the sale of Intel processors of the previous generation - this decision is planned to be appealed. Fortunately, many Ice Lake and Tiger Lake processors have already been discontinued by now, as they have been replaced by newer processors, so the sales ban will not significantly harm Intel or its partners. However, some PCs still use Intel's 12th generation Core “Alder Lake” processors, and variants of these processors still circulate on the market.

The good news for Intel is that the current generation of Core "Raptor Lake" and "Raptor Lake Refresh" processors and Core Ultra "Meteor Lake" processors do not infringe any of R2 Semiconductor's patents, so Intel and its partners in Germany can They continue to sell these processors and devices based on them without restrictions.

Intel is also fighting R2 Semiconductor in the United Kingdom and trying to resolve a long-running legal dispute with VLSI, also over disputed patents. The VLSI company is demanding as much as 4 billion dollars in damages.