UW-Madison is working with the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, a group that licenses patents for the university, to work through a patent lawsuit filed by Infineon Technologies AG, the second largest computer chip maker in Europe.
Infineon, a company based in Munich, Germany with offices in California, is filing a lawsuit against UW-Madison to prevent the university from receiving royalties for a chip that is used in making semiconductors. The university, which was ranked sixth last year out of schools receiving patent royalties, licensed the patent for the chip in 1986.
According to Andrew Cohn, spokesperson for WARF, the chip which is \widely used in the industry, primarily in copper chips,"" is licensed by companies such as Sanyo Electric Co., Sony Corp., Intel Corp. and Hitachi Ltd.
The patent is a significant one, Cohn noted. Infineon Technologies alone had a net fiscal second quarter of $1.98 billion. Globally, chip sales last year were approximately $177 billion and are expected to increase by 30 percent this year.
-Bloomberg.com contributed to this report.
The Recording Industry Association of America sued 477 computer users Wednesday, many of whom are college students, for allegedly sharing music across the Internet, according to CNN.com.
The industry praised university and college efforts to curb music file sharing, but said the most active file- sharers on campuses need to be sued.
""There is also a complementary need for enforcement by copyright owners against the serious offenders to remind people that this activity is illegal,"" RIAA President Cary Sherman told CNN.
100X Radio, WTLX-FM 100.5, will sponsor a march from the University Book Store, 711 State St., to the Capitol today at 4 p.m. to persuade UW-Madison junior point guard Devin Harris to continue playing during his senior year instead of entering the NBA draft.
Harris is still undecided about his plans for next year, but may be feeling pressure to play professional basketball, according to a press release.
""His dad wants him to go. His dad has been out of work for two years. That's hard on him because his parents are kind of putting pressure on him,"" UW-Madison junior Ashley Cullen, who is part of the Badger fanbase known as ""the front row girls,"" told 100X, according to the press release.
The march is part of 100X's ""Save Harris"" campaign and ""the front row girls"" will march for Harris' return to college basketball. Harris told Cullen he may attend the march in his honor, according to the release.
