A Texas jury has asked Intel to pay $ 2.18 billion for infringing two patents owned by VLSI technology. The company has n’t existed for 20 years.

Vlsi reportedly rose from the dead in 2019 specifically to sue. The last time it was an independent company was in 1999, when Philips purchased the semiconductor design firm for $ 1 billion. Nxp will reportedly get some of Intel’s money, too.

Vlsi was part of the original project with Apple and acorn to produce the first arm processors. The arm company responsible for the underpinnings of the chips that now appear in every smartphone, most tablets, and a growing number of laptops and servers.

Pic.twitter.com/r5bpch1aoq: pic.twitter.com/r5bpch1aoq.

The patents were originally issued to Freescale Semiconductor, and sigmatel in 2009, 2010, and 2012, respectively. But they were all assigned to the new VLSI in 2019, an LLC that’s attached to a fortress investment group.

Calling out VLSI as a zombie brand was part of Intel’s argument, according to Bloomberg. Calling VLSI a’zombie brand’ was a part of the Intel argument.

Jurors awarded roughly a tenth of Intel’s annual profits – $ 2.18 billion – for infringing two of the three patents.

Intel tells the verge that it’s not done fighting yet.’we intend to appeal and are confident that we will prevail’.