Transmeta filed in Delaware yesterday for infringement of ten patents: 5,737,624; 5,838,986; 5,895,503; 5,974,526; 6,044,449; 6,226,733; 6,289,433; 6,430,668; 6,813,699;  and 7,001,061.

In 2005, Transmeta, employing about 220 people, made $72.7 million; Intel, with more than 100,000 employees worldwide, grossed $32.82 billion.

Oddly, while Transmeta was x86 compatible, it never licensed any of Intel's patents. For a while, it was expected that Intel would go after Transmeta for infringement, but it never happened.

Transmeta has lost money for years: between 1998 and 2005, it lost $635 million on revenues of $134. It has been a venture capitalist's nightmare. Transmeta is expected to post a loss of $16-$26 million for the past fiscal year. Patent royalty payment would be just the financial fillip it needs.

Transmeta started up in 1995. David Ditzel, a co-founder, was a chip wunderkind at Sun Microsystems. Linus Torvalds, an early developer of Linux, was on staff for awhile.

This is not likely a case to ever see trial. Intel has too much at stake, and too little, on balance, to counterclaim effectively.