Cyrix sued over advertising
Cyrix is being sued by yet another company, Creative Technology, in yet another microprocessor-related lawsuit.
Creative Technology (CREAF) filed a suit today in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California alleging that Cyrix and unnamed customers using Cyrix's MediaGX processor are engaging in false advertising, trademark infringement, and unfair competition. Compaq (CPQ) is using the MediaGX processor in its new low-cost Presario 2100 line of consumer PCs.
Cyrix is not ready to comment on the allegations because it has not yet been served with court papers, according to a company spokesperson.
This Creative lawsuit comes fast on the heels of an entirely separate lawsuit filed last Friday by Intel, which claims Cyrix and Advanced Micro Devices are infringing on Intel's "MMX" trademark in their marketing strategies.
Creative, which makes the Sound Blaster and Sound Blaster AWE line of PC audio products, says that its primary complaint rests with Cyrix's claims that the MediaGX processor is compatible with Sound Blaster audio products. Creative alleges in its lawsuit that independent testing revealed the MediaGX lacks key functions that are found in Sound Blaster products.
In the lawsuit, Creative also alleges that the MediaGX-based system will tell users through diagnostic software that Creative is the manufacturer of the audio portion of the processor. Creative says the systems don't contain any hardware manufactured by the company, that certain functions are missing, and that the processor does not work properly with certain software programs.
The Cyrix MediaGX processor is a highly integrated Intel-compatible Pentium-class processor that incorporates a graphics processor and audio functionality.