Three months ago, Transmeta launched its first lawsuit against IT giant INTEL. The moment coincides with Transmeta's move from a low-cost company to one who works with patents and has registered several of them during its existence. Based on the idea "everyone sues INTEL sooner or later", Transmeta filed its lawsuit against INTEL saying that its entire x86 microprocessor line starting with Pentium Pro and ending with Core 2 parts infringed on one or more of the eleven patents held by them. They also said that INTEL has produced a total of $100 billion of profit over Transmeta's patents and claimed three times the money in court. So if they win, they'll get $300 billion over the trial.

However, if you sue INTEL, sooner or later they will sue you back. Last week INTEL finally decided to give Transmeta a run for its money with a monster countersuit which alleges that Transmeta has breached seven patents held by them. Many of those patents have a lot to do with methods of reducing the power consumption. According to INTEL, the following patents are subject to unauthorized use: 5,745,375; 5,617,554; 5,802,605; 5,819,101; 5,881,275; 6,385,634; 6,418,529.

Because INTEL likes symmetry, they seem to apply that law everywhere they go. Taking that into account, it wasn't much of a surprise the fact that they submitted the counter-suit at the same court where Transmeta legally attacked INTEL (Delaware, U.S. District Court). They've also presented a total of eleven defenses against the lawsuit. Greg Rose, Transmeta's director of corporate marketing said: "As expected, Intel has filed a timely response". No other information is available regarding this counter-suit but, as always, there's more than beats the eye here. I say we'll see an agreement between these two soon enough.