International Business Machines Corp. on Tuesday became the latest company to settle charges of infringing a patent involving making computer chips owned by the the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.
WARF, which owns and licenses patents based on research at UW-Madison, had accused IBM in a federal lawsuit of infringing on patented technology in making and selling copper-based chips.
The patent in question covers a metal barrier that prevents conductive metals from getting into the silicon that stores data in computer chips, stopping them from overheating or malfunctioning. It was granted in 1986 to John Wiley, an engineering professor who is now the school’s chancellor, and his colleague John Perepezko.