Big Blue asks ITC to intervene in patent dispute

IBM has filed a complaint with the US International Trade Commission (ITC) against Taiwanese firm Asustek and its North American subsidiary Asus Computer International.

Big Blue has asked for an exclusion order against the importation of Asustek products and other components which it claims infringe on IBM patents.

The independent ITC federal agency has the power to ban the import of products into the US.

"IBM has made repeated attempts to reach a licensing agreement between the companies," said IBM in a statement.

"IBM's position has been, and remains, that Asustek must either license or stop using IBM's patented technology."

The complaint centres on US patents 5,008,829 (a power supply for a personal computer), 5,249,741 (an automatic speed control system for a fan) and 5,371,852 (a method and apparatus for making a cluster of computers appear as a single host on a network).

"The infringing Asustek computer products include notebook computers, so-called barebones computer systems, servers, routers and various computer components," said IBM.

This week IBM also said it would sue online retailer Shentech for alleged fake laptop batteries that carried the IBM brand.