Originally, Harris Corp. (NYSE:HRS - News) , which Intersil spun off from, and Lucent Technologies Inc. (NYSE:LU - News) , which Agere spun off from, had an agreement with the original designers of the medium access control, Micro Choice, to use the technology. When Micro Choice was acquired by Harris, Lucent and spin-off Agere no longer had the license to use the chip, a spokesman for Intersil said.

"In the original agreement, the rights to the trade secrets was non- transferable," he said.

The Intersil spokesman said he has not received a response from Agere.

An Agere spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

On Oct. 17, Agere filed suit alleging Intersil infringed six wireless networking patents held by Agere. Intersil said then that Agere's allegations are without merit since Intersil's Prism chips don't infringe any valid and enforceable patents claimed by Agere.

Intersil closed at $16.94, up 45 cents, or 2.7%, on Nasdaq volume of 3.1 million shares. Average daily volume is 3.2 million shares.

Agere closed at 90 cents, up 5 cents, or 5.9%, on Nasdaq volume of 14.6 million shares. Average daily volume is 5.7 million shares.

Company Web sites: http://www.intersil.com; http://www.agere.com