Some action at last in the long-festering dispute between Intel and VIA over rights to make chipsets for the Pentium 4. And in the UK, of all places. But it's not good news for the Taiwanese 'core logic' designer, which saw its antitrust case against Intel thrown out by the Chancery Division of the High Court in London.

VIA had issued a writ claiming that a: it was entitled to make chipsets for P4s and b: Intel's denial of this right was an abuse of monopoly.

There's no way back from that one. Intel and VIA and some VIA distributors are slugging it out in jurisdictions in three continents. Mostly Intel is sueing VIA. Today's ruling will mean that VIA will think very carefully if it is to sue Intel in other countries. It could take a long time before we see the real battle commence with the substance of the matter i.e. does VIA have inherent rights to produce chipsets for P4s through cross-licenses held by S3 Graphics, a subsidiary. ®