Intergraph has filed suit against Dell Computer, Gateway and Hewlett-Packard, alleging that the PC companies violated its patents by incorporating Pentium-family processors into their computers.
The lawsuit--which could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars and eventually have an impact on every PC maker that used Intel chips in the last seven years--is based on a similar intellectual-property suit launched by Intergraph against Intel that was settled in April this year.
In that case, filed in 1997, Intergraph claimed that Intel's Pentium, Pentium Pro, Pentium II, Pentium III and other processors infringed on patents embodied in its Clipper chip.
Under the settlement, Intel agreed to pay Intergraph $300 million. The deal, however, did not insulate companies that incorporated Intel processors into their computers from suits based on the same patents. The chipmaker is obliged to send a letter to PC makers notifying them of that circumstance, said an Intergraph spokeswoman.