AMD and Intel battle it out over Germany

WHILE CHIP firms Intel and AMD fought each other with marketing at Computex last week, their squadrons of lawyers were clocking up loads of money in the antitrust case proceeding in spades in a Delaware district court.

Not just Intel and AMD lawyers. A heap of the third parties want in on the action - so firms like HP and Dell are having to appoint lawyers just to check how the endless war between Tweedledum and Tweedledee is proceeding.

Most of the story so far. Intel wants the beleaguered Judge Joseph Farnan to smite out AMD's claims which relate to alleged monopolistic behaviour outside the United States of America.

Intel claimed a few weeks back that a whole bevy of complaints AMD made don't have validity because it makes its CPUs in Germany. It also claims that US jurisdiction cannot cover allegations relating to resellers such as the German Media Markt, the British Dixons Group, and other such complaints.

AMD, last week, filed its response to those initial Intel claims but it's obvious Chipzilla has an army of lawyers working full time on this one, because its response to AMD's response came flying back within days.

The problem that the good judge Joe has got to get his head around is complicated by the fact that there appears to be a lot of case law relating to foreign jurisdiction. It's an important point because on the one hand AMD wants to drag in Europe and Asia, while on the other hand that doesn't suit Intel at all. If the good judge rules in Intel's favour, a big chunk of the case won't be discussed.

Now the world+dog knows that the microprocessor and IT business is global. But individual jurisdictions have their own rules because the Star Trek Federation doesn't exist. Yet. So Intel wants the court to dismiss big portions of AMD's complaint. Read the PDF to get the gist as the case continues. And continues. And continues. And will continue. µ

See Also
AMD and Intel trial coverage and reports
27 page PDF