Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and Intel Corp. are battling over whether court documents from an U.S. antitrust case against Intel can be used to bolster AMD's antitrust complaint against Intel at the European Commission.
AMD has filed suit in federal district court in San Jose, Calif., seeking to transfer expert witness testimony and other documents to the EU that were gathered in the Intergraph Corp. antitrust and patent infringement suit against Intel several years ago. An Intel spokesman said the antitrust portion of the Intergraph case was dismissed in 1999, although the patent infringement portion continues.
The AMD spokesman said the firm believes the EU antitrust probe of Intel involves many of the same issues that surfaced in the Intergraph case. He said AMD is seeking on its own behalf to have the documents transferred under seal to the EC, and is not acting on behalf of the EC.
"We believe many of the issues in the Intergraph case were similar to the questions under investigation by the EC," he said. "Specifically, AMD believes that Intel as a de facto monopoly is obligated to provide specifications to the market on certain key interfaces. As a monopoly, Intel uses its power to decide how its (external) interface specifications will be disclosed and to whom. Intel uses its anticompetitive actions to dictate who will succeed in the market or who won't."
The Intergraph case involved Intel's withholding its critical processor details from licensees who had sued the firm.
An Intel spokesman said that portion of the case was dismissed, and Intel claims no documents should then be released to a foreign jurisdiction. He also charged that AMD isn't the proper party to request the documents, and any such request should come from the EC itself.
The AMD spokesman said that Intel as a monopoly has the obligation to provide external interface specifications to the market in general to avoid anticompetitive control over the market. AMD filed just such complaint to the EC in October, 2000.
The Intel spokesman said the firm is cooperating fully with the EC in its investigation. Intel maintains the AMD antitrust complaint has no merit.
Asked if AMD would file an antitrust complaint against its chief rival in U.S. courts, the spokesman said "the wheels of justice turn so slowly that filing suits in this country don't lead to any timely remedy." As to filing a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, which already absolved Intel of antitrust behavior, the spokesman added, "U.S. authorities don't seem to have much enthusiasm to pursue such action."
