The unanimous decision Monday was helpful to customers of Intel Corp. and is the latest step by the justices to scale back the power of patent-holders. The case revolves around a long-time Supreme Court doctrine that says the sale of an invention exhausts the patent-holder's right to control how the purchaser uses it.

On Monday, SanDisk quietly acquired MusicGremlin, a maker of Wi-Fi enabled MP3 players.

"...Intel said they are ramping the fab up as fast as they can...Intel started powering up the plant and checking its machinery on Friday and output resumed on Sunday..."

Craig Barratt, the chief executive of wireless chip maker Atheros, presented this afternoon at the JP Morgan technology conference, along with CFO Jack Lazar, and sent some skeptical vibes in the direction of the broadband wireless networking technology known as Wimax, which is being promoted heavily by Sprint, Intel, Google, and US cable operators.

Intel announced a 50 million ringgit (US$15.3 million) investment in Green Packet, the parent company of Malaysian WiMax operator Packet One Networks. The funds invested by Intel will be used to support Green Packet's WiMax business, the Malaysian company said in a statement.

Plans for high-speed wireless Internet will benefit Intel – an investor in the Sprint Nextel-Clearwire WiMax venture – and analysts expect other chip makers to gain from Intel's position and increased spending on similar networks.