When “and” And “e.g.” Matter: Federal Circuit Revives VLSI Vs. Intel Case

In VLSI Technology LLC v. Intel Corp., No. 2024-1772 (Fed. Cir. Apr. 14, 2026), the Federal Circuit reversed in part a summary judgment of noninfringement, giving new life to VLSI’s nearly nine-year infringement dispute against Intel.

VLSI sued Intel for infringement of eight patents, including U.S. Patent No. 8,566,836 related to selecting cores of a multicore processor to execute a particular task. The district court granted Intel summary judgment of noninfringement, concluding that certain claimed functions were practiced only outside the United States and rejecting VLSI’s doctrine-of-equivalents theories. The Federal Circuit reversed.

On extraterritoriality, the Court concluded that the district court’s summary judgment ruling was inconsistent with the parties’ pretrial stipulation, in which Intel had agreed that, for accused products determined to meet the claimed technical requirements, “seventy percent (70%) thereof will be deemed to have a United States nexus.” The Federal