Leadership

Intel settles legal disputes with AMD

12.11.2009
Computer-chip giant Intel has announced it has settled all its anti-trust and intellectual property (IP) disputes with fellow chip maker AMD in a move that will see AMD drop all pending legal cases it has against Intel.

As part of what Intel said was a comprehensive agreement between the two firms, it will pay AMD the sum of US$1.25bn.

In addition, under the terms of the agreement AMD and Intel will obtain patent rights from a new 5-year cross-licence agreement, and Intel and AMD will give up any claims of breach from the previous license agreement.

Intel has also agreed to abide by a set of "business practice provisions".

As a result of the agreement, AMD will drop all pending litigation against Intel including the case in US District Court in Delaware and two cases pending in Japan.

AMD will also withdraw all of its regulatory complaints worldwide.

“While the relationship between the two companies has been difficult in the past, this agreement ends the legal disputes and enables the companies to focus all of our efforts on product innovation and development,” the two companies said in a joint statement.

Intel's business practicies have not gone unnoticed by regulators on either side of the Atlantic.

Last week the US Attorney General Andrew Cuomo filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against Intel alleging that the chip firm had extracted exclusive agreements from large computer makers in which they agreed to use Intel’s microprocessors in exchange for payments or ‘rebates’ totalling billions of dollars.

Intel was also slapped with a record €1bn fine by the European Commission in May. This is the largest fine the Commission has ever imposed on a single company and related to Intel engaging in illegal anti-competitive practices designed to exclude competitors, namely AMD.