More lawsuits fly in Intel/ Broadcom spat

Communications chipmonger Broadcom has asked a California superior court for an injunction against Intel in a bid to stop Chipzilla from selling products Broadcom claims are the result of stolen trade secrets.

In the latest round of the acrimonious feud between Broadcom and Intel, Broadcom claims Intel used Broadcom chip secrets to speed up development of its own products.

Broadcom says Intel, and its subsidiary Level One Communications, obtained confidential Broadcom silicon from a third party and reverse-engineered them.

"Had Intel not resorted to these tortuous actions, its competing products would have been delayed for many months, if not years, and it would have lost major customers to Broadcom," asserts the suit.

An Intel Europe spokesman retorted: "While we have no comment on this specific motion, we are confident that our actions are lawful within the bounds of normal business behaviour."

The court has been asked to block sales of a number of Intel products, including its Media Access Controller and Gigabit Ethernet Physical Layer Interface chips, and Broadcom is also asking for the appointment of an intermediary to monitor Intel to ensure its compliance. The comms company also alleges it has evidence of smoking-gun e-mails and testimony from Intel employees portraying Intel as "attempting to play catch-up by any means necessary."

Intel filed a suit in Delaware against Broadcom in August, claiming the company had been poaching Intel employees and copying its technology as part of "a carefully crafted plan."

Broadcom counterclaimed against an earlier Intel suit in June, in which Intel sought to block Broadcom from hiring three former Intel employees. &reg:

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