Trial in separate patent dispute with HP, Dell, and Gateway to begin next year Texas Instruments Inc. (TI) has agreed to license Intergraph Corp.’s patents on parallel processing technology, ending the legal battle between the two companies, Intergraph announced Wednesday.The dispute was related to three Intergraph patents regarding its parallel instruction computing (PIC) technology. Intergraph, based in Huntsville, Alabama, claimed that TI’s TMS320C6000 digital signal processors infringed upon its patents by using the PIC technology in those products.TI will license the technology through the one-time payment of $18 million as a royalty fee, Intergraph said. Intergraph also announced Wednesday that the trial in a separate patent dispute with Hewlett-Packard Co., Dell Inc., and Gateway Inc. is scheduled to begin on Aug. 2, 2004. Intergraph is suing the three PC vendors claiming that those companies infringe on cache memory management technology patented by Intergraph. Software and services for engineering and mapping make up the portion of Intergraph’s revenue that doesn’t come from the vigorous defense of its patents. The company recorded $501 million in revenue in 2002, $441 million of which was derived from patent litigation, according to Intergraph’s 2002 annual report.The company has also pursued patent infringement claims against Intel Corp., which has thus far cost Intel $150 million as part of a monetary damages agreement. During the Intel trial, a federal judge said Intergraph’s patents were “valid and enforceable,” and that Intel’s Itanium 2 server processor infringed upon those patents. Intergraph used to manufacture its own line of technical workstations and graphics technology that used an internally developed processor called Clipper. The technology that was to become part of the next-generation Clipper processor is involved in the patent cases between Intergraph, TI, and Intel. Intergraph sold those businesses in 2000 after a licensing dispute with Intel. Software Development