Philips sues six chip makers

In keeping with the litigious nature of the chip business, U.S. Philips Corp., a subsidiary of Netherlands' Royal Philips Electronics, is suing six chip makers in a US federal court claiming they have infringed Philips' IC-based bus technology. Philips is seeking damages from Analog Devices, Cirrus Logic, Cypress Semiconductor, Fairchild Semiconductor, Linear Technology, and Standard Microsystems. Developed in the 1970s, the I2C bus patents in question cover a serial data path used to interconnect chips on circuit boards used in consumer electronics.

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