Silicon giant Intel has confirmed it has taken legal action against Broadcom for allegedly acquiring its trade secrets by stealth. The firm yesterday filed a lawsuit against Broadcom, which makes silicon for digital cable set top boxes, alleging that the firm had wooed away three staff who possess inner secrets of Intel's Ethernet products. According to an Intel representative, Broadcom had engaged on "a systematic programme of targeting specific employees and placing them within roles which would inevitably lead to them divulging confidential information." Intel added that while it had no objection to other companies hiring its staff in principle, this was a case where its trade secrets would be in jeopardy. The company confirmed that Intel employees were bound by contracts which prevented them from divulging information when they got new jobs. And here's where our sense of irony begins to kick in. On the 12th of March last year, we reported on Motorola which was very, very cross and decided to sue Intel over an alleged poaching of Motorola staff who worked at the Somerset Power PC hothouse in Austin. Cough. Broadcom has not yet publicly commented on the pending case. ® See Also Motorola legals Intel