US chipmaker Intel has launched a legal campaign against a Chinese competitor, claiming the latter infringed the intellectual property rights (IPRs) of its software.

Zhang Shujun, a spokeswoman with Dongjin Technology, said Monday that her company received Intel's indictment from Shenzhen Intermediary People's Court on Thursday and is formulating a defence.

Zhang said the company spends over 10 percent of its sales on research and development annually and owns all IPRs on its products.

Intel claims in the indictment that Dongjin Technology copied the header files from Intel's Inter Dialogic System Release 5.1.1 software (SR5.1.1) for its communications cards. The Chinese firm stands accused of using part of the software, especially the header files, in its NADK software and distributing it to customers and telling them to download SR5.1.1 from the Internet.

But analysts said Intel's real intention is to keep Shenzhen-based Dongjin Technology out of the computer technology integration (CTI) market, as it has become a threat to the US giant.

Intel said its losses due to Dongjin's infringements have reached US$7.96 million and is claiming the same amount in compensation.

The sum is also equal to Dongjin's annual revenue.

Jennifer Liu, a spokeswoman with Intel China, said Monday her company respects the Chinese legal system and is confident the court will make a fair judgment.

Jiang Hongyi, a lawyer with the firm defending Dongjin, said in a statement that the evidence provided to the court by Intel does not support its claims. His client also denied its software contained the Intel header files.

He added that Dongjin's NADK software is merely compatible with Intel's software, so that when users of Intel's communications cards switch to Dongjin's products, they do not need to unnecessarily alter existing programs.

Zhang Ping, an associate professor of IPR protection at Peking University, said that header files cannot be regarded as independent intellectual property and are a software development environment, so just using that environment cannot be judged as an infringement on a company's IPRs.

CTI products, which combine computer and telecommunications technologies, are widely used in applications like interactive voice response, Internet protocol (IP) telephony, and faxes.

US firms Intel and NMS and Dongjin are three major players in the market, but the rise of the latter has posed a serious threat to the two US firms.

(China Daily January 25, 2004)