Sunnyvale (CA) – AMD was able to provide TG Daily with an update on the current x86 cross-license dispute between their company and Intel. We were told “The law departments of both companies are in-contact with one another” attempting to come to a mutual agreement.
On Monday, March 16, Intel offered to AMD to make the terms of their x86 cross-license public. While AMD has no objection to this, they feel Intel’s insistence on secrecy relating to the U.S. civil antitrust case is not appropriate. As such, they are using the offering as leverage against Intel to release documents in the antitrust lawsuit.
Michael Silverman, AMD Public Relations, told TG Daily today, “AMD would be happy to make the entire [x86] agreement public if Intel drops its insistence on secrecy concerning its exclusionary business practices under the guise of confidentiality it has imposed on evidence in the U.S. civil antitrust case. There is no commercial reason to have those documents under seal; it is simply a means for Intel to try to conceal its illegal behavior.”
AMD has declined to comment further while the mediation is ongoing, and Intel did not respond by the time of this article’s publication when a comment from them was requested.
Below is AMD’s original statement on the matter printed in full:
Intel’s action is an attempt to distract the world from the global antitrust scrutiny it faces. Should this matter proceed to litigation, we will prove that Intel fabricated this claim to interfere with our commercial relationships and thus has violated the cross-license.
AMD remains in full compliance with the cross-license agreement. And as we’ve stated all along, the structure of GLOBALFOUNDRIES takes into account all our cross-license agreements. We will continue to respect Intel’s intellectual property rights, just as we expect them to respect ours.
Again, we believe that Intel manufactured this diversion as an attempt to distract attention from the increasing number of antitrust rulings against it around the world. With a ruling from the European Commission and a U.S. trial date looming, and investigations by the U.S. FTC and NY Attorney General, the clock is ticking on Intel’s illegal practices – and yet with its dominant monopoly position it still tries to stifle competitors.
The AMD/Intel cross-license agreement is a two-way agreement, the benefits of which go to both companies. Intel leverages innovative AMD IP critical for its product designs under the cross license. This includes AMD patents related to 64-bit architecture extensions, integrated memory controller, multi-core architecture, etc.). The cross-license is very much a two-way street.
In fact, we informed Intel that their attempt to terminate AMD’s license itself constitutes a breach of the cross-license agreement, which, if uncured, gives AMD the right to terminate Intel’s license.
