Chipmaker Accuses MediaTek of Scheme to File ‘Frivolous’ Suits

Realtek Semiconductor Corp. filed an antitrust lawsuit against MediaTek Inc., likening the fellow smart television chipmaker to a “modern robber baron” and accusing it of conspiring with a patent-assertion entity to harass it with “frivolous” and costly-to-defend lawsuits.

MediaTek entered into a 2019 agreement with IPValue Management Inc.'s subsidiary Future Link Systems LLC, encouraging Future Link to wage patent war against the MediaTek rival, Realtek claimed in a complaint filed Tuesday in the US District Court for the Northern District of California. Realtek—which, like MediaTek, is based in Taiwan—also named Future Link and IPValue as defendants in the complaint, ...