Intellectual Ventures Acquires Chip Patents

Intellectual Ventures has acquired the patent portfolio of Transmeta, a supplier of low-power Intel-compatible x86 processors.  As reported by Cnet News, Intellectual Ventures has picked up 140 U.S. patents in addition to other pending patent applications that are currently owned by Transmeta.

Transmeta was recently restructured in 2007, and the former chipmaker changed to an intellectual property company that sued others for patent infringement.  But last November, Transmeta was sold for $255.6 million in cash to Novafora.  The company was interested in Transmeta’s video processing chips, and under the terms of the recent deal with Intellectual Ventures, Novafora will be able to continue to improve its own proprietary designs by utilizing Transmeta technologies.  At the same time, Intellectual Ventures will provide other companies with access to Transmeta’s former patent rights under non-exclusive licensing terms.

Paul Reidy, the vice president of semiconductor licensing at Intellectual Ventures, said “These (patent) additions cover inventions in high-performance, low power, and embedded processors.”