The court reinstated the $3 billion lawsuit by VLSI against Intel and sent the patent dispute to a jury trial.

Brief summary of the decision

The U.S. Federal Appeals Court issued a ruling to return the full‑scope patent lawsuit brought by VLSI Technology against Intel for $3 billion to trial. The court overturned the 2024 judgment that found Intel processors did not infringe VLSI’s patent on measuring the maximum frequency of multi‑processor chips. The case will now be heard by a jury.

Why the court sent the case back to a jury

The appellate court concluded that the dispute could not be resolved through simplified judicial proceedings. Therefore, the question of actual patent infringement must be decided by a jury. This ruling does not determine Intel’s liability but it reverses the earlier premature dismissal that had benefited the company.

Expertise rulings

The court upheld the prior decision to exclude VLSI’s expert Ryan Salivan from the proceeding. The court found that he failed to adequately disclose the methodology and calculations underlying the damages claim. Nevertheless, VLSI may continue to seek compensation if it presents a different expert.

Intel’s interim successes

For Intel, an important victory was the court’s agreement to a narrower scope for potential damages calculation. The company convinced the judge that patent restrictions related to measurement were violated only outside the United States—during testing and packaging stages—but not during the manufacturing of silicon wafers within the country. VLSI contests this conclusion.

Context of the broader dispute

The case is part of a long‑term patent showdown between VLSI and Intel that began around the mid‑2010s. VLSI filed several lawsuits in the U.S. and other jurisdictions, alleging that Intel infringed 19 patents originally developed by Freescale, NXP, and SigmaTel. Court decisions on individual claims have varied: some courts sided with VLSI, others invalidated the patents.

Other dispute – Finjan license

A separate issue concerns whether Intel’s licensing agreement with Finjan (entered into in 2012) covers VLSI’s patents. Both entities are under the control of Fortress Investment Group. Intel asserts that the license encompasses all Finjan patents and other structures within the group, and therefore should apply to VLSI’s portfolio. In response, VLSI claims the agreement does not extend to it because the company was formed only four years after the license was granted and thus falls outside its terms.

Background changes in Fortress ownership

In 2024, a consortium led by Mubadala Investment Company acquired a controlling stake in Fortress from SoftBank Group. While this does not directly affect the case outcome, such shifts intensify discussions about which patent portfolios fall under older licensing agreements.

Thus, the court returned the case to a jury while preserving several key expert rulings and limiting the scope of potential damages calculation. This event marks an important milestone in the ongoing patent conflict between the two microprocessor industry giants.