Interesting breakdown on patent litigation among chipmakers in yesterday's EETimes. So far this year, 53 lawsuits have been filed in federal district court, a big increase compared to a decade ago.

Intellectual property and patent litigation plays a major role in chip sector M&A--especially among chip design software firms--sometimes fueling deals, but more often than not snuffing them out before they ever get announced. Taking out insurance against these risks has become prohibitively expensive for all but the largest chipmakers.

Not surprisingly, the biggest semi firm, Intel Corp., averaged the most cases over the past 10 years, followed by Broadcom Corp. and Texas Instruments Inc. - Olaf de Senerpont Domis

See Sept. 12 story from EETimes

See December 2004 story from TheDeal.com

See July 2004 story from TheDeal.com