IBM v. ASUS patent dispute

IBM has asked for an import ban on some computers built by ASUS, Reuters reports. The former today filed a complaint with the US International Trade Commission, alleging that select machines sold under the ASUS name -- and also under third party names, possibly including Apple and Dell -- violate several patents, including ones relating to cooling, clustering, and power supplies. Though no individual computers have been singled out, IBM will say that notebooks, servers, routers and some other components are at stake.

ASUS has become aggressively expansionist in the past year, hoping to become the world's fifth-largest notebook seller by 2010, partly by reaching farther into the mainstream American market. The most prominent example of this is the Eee PC, a seven-inch subnotebook designed for ease of use. A computer that may eventually reach the States is the Nova P22, a desktop system similar in concept to Apple's Mac mini.

By Electronista Staff