14 DAY TRIAL // As some of you have probably already found out, long-time rivals AMD and Intel have recently engaged in a legal dispute over the breach of a patent cross-license agreement made by AMD, as claimed by the world's leading chip maker, Intel. On Monday, Intel accused its competitor that the spin-off of its manufacturing assets had breached a 2001 patent cross-licensing agreement between the two companies. After Intel's expressed intentions of terminating the agreement and consequently removing AMD's rights to Intel's patents, the Sunnyvale, California-based chip maker responded, claiming that Intel wanted to see the company perish into oblivion.
In a recent news article on Cnet, AMD's general counsel, Harry Wolin, says that Intel is actually looking to eliminate all of its competitors and the latest actions are just part of such plans. “In their perfect world, we wouldn't exist. If they had to deal with the government every now and then, that's fine, and they're still extracting monopoly profits from the industry,” he says. He then continues by stating, ”I don't agree with the premise that they have to have us and they think they have to have us. I think they would absolutely like us dead.”
In addition AMD recently released a statement claiming that Intel's action was just a means for the world's top leading chip maker to try to distract the world from the global antitrust scrutiny it faces. AMD added that, if this issues went to court, it would prove that Intel's claims had been fabricated to interfere with AMD's commercial relationships, consequently violating the cross-license.
At this stage, Intel says that it plans to bring the Globalfoundries company, AMD's subsidiary, to the table, in an attempt to mediate the issue. If the talks between the two rivals don’t lead to a peaceful result, then we shall see new lawsuits between the two chip makers.