TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Via Technologies Inc. today stepped up its legal counterattack against Intel Corp. by providing more details about a U.S. patent lawsuit filed against the microprocessor giant. Last week, Via disclosed it had filed a counter suit against Intel, which is suing the Taiwan chip maker for infringement of Pentium 4 chip-set technology.

Today, Via officials said the company was suing Intel in a U.S. District Court in Austin, Tex., alleging that the Pentium 4 violates a U.S. patent that covers different formats in which numeric data may be stored in a microprocessor. The patent is jointly owned by Via and its wholly-owned subsidiary Centaur Technology in Austin.

Last week, Via fired back at Intel, accusing the Santa Clara, Calif., company of patent infringement, violations of Taiwan's fair trade laws, and willful destruction of property during the Computex trade show in Taipei last June (see Sept. 10 story). In June, Via complained that Intel representatives were destroying promotional balloons and other materials with the company's logo at Computex.

Meanwhile, the U.S. suit in Austin deals with alleged infringement of Via's Patent No. 6,253,311. Company officials said Via and Centaur are seeking an injunction against the sale of Pentium 4 processors as well as monetary damages from Intel. Via did not say how much it was seeking in monetary damages.

"Filing this lawsuit is the first step in protecting our intellectual property rights," warned Richard Brown, director of marketing at Via.

An immediate response to the claims in the lawsuit was not available from Intel today.

The suit and other actions by Via are in response to a long-simmering legal dispute between Intel and the aggressive Taiwan chip-set supplier. Earlier this month, Intel filed an expected U.S. lawsuit against Via, claiming it was infringing upon Pentium 4-based chip set patents (see Sept. 7 story).

For months, Intel has maintained that Via does not have a license or rights to chip sets connecting to the Pentium 4 central processor. Via has complained that Intel has been on a smear campaign attempting to frighten away potential customers for its chip sets (see Aug. 23 story). Via maintains that it has rights to offer Pentium 4-compatible chip sets through previous licensing agreements and its S3 Graphics subsidiary, which was acquired this year from S3 Inc. (now called Sonicblue Inc. in Santa Clara).