This article is more than 1 year old

Intel vs VIA mostly causing pain for, well, Intel

Customers think it's a waste of time

Realtime Distribution, one of the VIA co-defendants fingered in the UK round of Intel versus VIA P$ patent lawsuits (see more here), says its customers are getting increasingly annoyed with Chipzilla's heavy-handed tactics.

Cambridgeshire-based Realtime is a £50m t/o wholesaler of PC components to the UK system builder market. The distie has notified customers of the Intel suit, filed last week,

Most system builders have reaffirmed their purchasing commitment to the company, sales director Mark Reed told us. And few think that anything will come of the proceedings, especially as they have watched the fizzling out of cases in the past between Intel and sundry competitors (AMD, etc.), he says.

However, Realtime's customers are growing increasingly irritated, with some even making derogatory comments towards Intel as it pursues the patent cases against VIA, Reed claims.

In the interim, Realtime has made no decision to remove any products from its catalogue and Reed says it's "very, very unlikely" for the company to do so, as it will always supply according to demand. It sells chips from VIA, AMD and Intel.

According to Reed, the reason that Intel has singled out Realtime(it's the only distie being fired at so far) is probably due to it being the largest mover of VIA's C3 processor in Europe. He reckons that there is a good chance more companies will be roped in soon, although he is doubtful that it will make much impact on the case.

Intel states that it is rightly defending its intellectual property and will continue to do so. It expects customers should understand the reason why it is protecting its rights. ®

Related Stories

Intel takes VIA P4 Patent War to UK, HK, Germany
Intel vs VIA - get it sorted, demand Mobo makers

More about

TIP US OFF

Send us news


Other stories you might like