The lawsuit involves six US patents, three of which, according to Agere, are essential for making chips comply with the 802.11b wireless local area networking (WLAN) standard, better known as Wi-Fi, a technology that is an increasingly popular alternative to fixed-line corporate networks.
Agere claims that it previously agreed to make these standards-based patents available on "reasonable terms and conditions", but that Intersil has not paid for their use. Agere adds that it attempted to negotiate a licence with Intersil without success before suing.
Agere is seeking monetary damages, legal costs and a court order to stop Intersil using the patents in its products.
Intersil has rejected the allegations and says that Agere's claims are "without merit."
You can find out more about Wi-Fi at WhatIs.com:
http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci838865,00.html