Apple Computer sued for alleged patent infringement

WILMINGTON: Apple Computer Inc. was sued on Thursday for alleged infringement

of two computer patents owned by BIAX Corp.

According to papers filed in the US District Court in Delaware by BIAX, the

three Colorado-based inventors of the 1996 patents assigned their rights to BIAX.

There is no telephone listing for BIAX Corp. at the Boulder, Colorado address

listed in the lawsuit, or anywhere else in the US, according to the telephone

company.

But BIAX attorney Jack Slobodin, reached at the Walnut Creek offices of Fish

and Richardson PC told Reuters that BIAX is a small Colorado company owned by a

father and son who live in Florida and Colorado, respectively. According to

Slobodin, the patents in question improve the efficiency and speed of parallel

processing of a computer's central processing unit (CPU). Parallel processing

allows the CPU to perform many simultaneous tasks, Slobodin said.

The lawsuit alleges that Apple makes and sells computers that are covered by

the patents. BIAX seeks a court order against further alleged infringement and

an award of unspecified damages. Calls to Apple's Cupertino, California offices

were not returned. Slobodin, who said BIAX has held no discussions with Apple,

said BIAX is considering filing similar lawsuits against other unnamed computer

manufacturers.

The patents at issue are for a "Computer with instructions that use an

address field to select among multiple condition code registers," and a

"Parallel processor system for processing natural concurrences and method

therefore."

(C) Reuters Limited 2001.