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.

A regional court in Düsseldorf recently ruled that Intel infringed a patent by US-based R2 Semiconductor and subsequently issued an injunction against the sale of some of Intel's previous-generation processors in Germany, the Financial Times 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 disclosed 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".

A German court has issued a legal ban on the sale of Intel's previous generation processors for the time being - this decision is to be appealed. Fortunately, many Ice Lake and Tiger Lake processors have already been discontinued by now, having been replaced by newer processors, so the sales ban will not significantly harm Intel or its partners.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 versions of these processors are still circulating 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 continue without restrictions they sell these processors and devices based on them.

Intel is also fighting R2 Semiconductor in the UK and trying to resolve a long-running legal dispute with VLSI, also over disputed patents. VLSI is seeking as much as $4 billion in damages.