AMD Refutes Intel Claim It Violated Cross-Licensing Agreement
[Intel is a sponsor of SVW]
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) refuted Intel's claim that it has violated the terms of a secret cross-licensing agreement that allows it to manufacture X86 microprocessors and said it was an attempt to distract from "global antitrust scrutiny" of Intel business.
AMD has tried to cut its business costs by creating Global Foundries, which would make chips for AMD and also other third parties.
Monday morning Intel said it had notified AMD that it "believes AMD has breached a 2001 patent cross-license agreement with Intel."
Intel believes that Global Foundries is not a subsidiary under terms of the agreement and is therefore not licensed under the 2001 patent cross-license agreement. Intel also said the structure of the deal between AMD and ATIC breaches a confidential portion of that agreement. Intel has asked AMD to make the relevant portion of the agreement public, but so far AMD has declined to do so. AMD's breach could result in the loss of licenses and rights granted to AMD by Intel under the agreement.
Intel Notifies AMD of Cross-License Breach
The two companies have an agreement to try to resolve the dispute through mediation.
AMD said Intel had "manufactured this diversion as an attempt to distract attention from the increasing number of antitrust rulings against it around the world."
The AMD statement said:
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.
AMD said that Intel's attempt to terminate the license was itself a breach of the agreement and that AMD had the right to terminate Intel's license.
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.
