3Com Corporation, Xircom Corporation and Intel Corporation today announced resolution of patent infringement lawsuits, one brought by 3Com against Xircom and two by Xircom against 3Com. Under the terms of this settlement, 3Com will be paid $15 million by Xircom; a consent judgment acknowledging the validity of the 3Com patents involved and infringement by Xircom products, including RealPort and RealPort2 Xircom products, will be entered; cross licensing of the patents in suit has been agreed upon and the Xircom lawsuits against 3Com will be dismissed with prejudice.

Xircom was acquired by Intel in 2001, after 3Com had filed its patent infringement case in Utah against Xircom on May 26, 2000. The court ruled on March 22, 2002, that 3Com was likely to prevail on its claim that Xircom infringes claim 29 of U.S. Patent number 6.146.209. In July, Judge Tena Campbell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah granted 3Com's motion for a preliminary injunction to prohibit Xircom from manufacturing, using, selling, offering to sell within the United States, or importing into the United States, dozens of products, including RealPort and RealPort2 products.

Intel this year has a numerous serious lawsuits this year. For example, in about two weeks time, in case Houston district court still insists that Intel infringes Intergraph’s patents, the Santa Clara, California-based semiconductor giant will either have to pay Intergraph the about $150 million as a compensation for the infringement of the patents and also obtain the appropriate license for additional $100 million or to stop selling the current and future Itanium and Itanium 2 processors.