Judge Dismisses AMD's Antitrust Claims Against Intel

By Colleen Taylor -- Electronic News, 9/27/2006

A federal judge has granted Intel Corp.'s motion to dismiss a large portion of rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc.'s antitrust claims against the company, saying that U.S. law does not cover many of AMD's claims.

The battle at hand dates back to June 2005, when a lawsuit filed by AMD accused Intel of monopolizing the x86 microprocessor market by coercing customers not to deal with AMD.

Intel refuted AMD's claims, maintaining that its business practices were both fair and lawful and asserting that AMD was merely shrinking from the competitive battle for the market. "Under the cover of competition law, AMD seeks to shield itself from competition," Intel said in a September 2005 court filing. 

In an 18-page opinion issued September 26, Judge Joseph Farnan of the U.S. District Court in Delaware ruled that "the alleged injuries suffered by AMD as a result of Intel's foreign conduct are foreign injuries that occurred in foreign markets." Although he did acknowledge that the foreign conduct may have given rise to "ripple effect" felt in the United States, Farnan dismissed the claims as being out of his realm of jurisdiction, as they are not covered by laws in the United States.

"AMD has not demonstrated that the alleged foreign conduct of Intel has direct, substantial and foreseeable effects in the United States which gives rise to its claim," Farnan said in the opinion.

AMD could not be reached for immediate comment.

Intel may have won in the courtroom, but some finance firms are betting on AMD to come ahead on Wall Street. Riding high on the recent debut of its  Torrenza Innovation Socket Initiative and rumors of an upcoming Apple Computer collaboration, Lehman Brothers said this week that it is maintaining its preference for AMD's financial outlook over Intel in the longer term.

Intel, meanwhile, is riding on its trade event, the Intel Developer Forum, held this week in San Francisco. So far, the company has announced quad core processors; an 80-core test chip; and a proposal from it and IBM that would extend the PCI Express interconnect standard.