Intel and NVidia: Towards a Legal Battle

Both companies have now engaged in a battle which will have to be settled by the justice. Intel announced to have launched a legal action in Delaware concerning the cross-license agreement signed with NVidia. The founder claims that it did NOT include the technologies linked to the Core i7. In other words, Intel does not want NVidia to develop any chipset for the forthcoming Core i7, and this will become true if the founder wins its action. However, it would restrict the choice of customers for Core i7 compatible motherboards...
NVidia officially reacted via its CEO Jen-Hsun Huan who claimed that Intel has initiated such legal action because NVidia is currently offering the best chipset solution. He also mentioned that it could be linked to NVidia's leadership position in GPGPU.
Intel is most likely acting in such way to preserve its monopoly while slowing down the current success of NVidia with its GF 9400 M chipset as well as the impressive Atom-dedicated ION platform. If Intel does not have to fear any strong competition from AMD for the coming months, it is obvious that the battle will be intensive around chipset and GPGPU. If the current legal action can block NVidia's future products, it could bring the company's market share to the same level as before the release of the GF 9400 M, and interfere with the launch of the Ion. For sure, the European commission is probably looking at such legal action is order to collect proof of Intel's monopoly in such field.