AMD Asks Court to Review Intel’s Global Activities

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has asked a U.S. court to compel Intel to disclose documents relating to its activities outside the United States, as part of an ongoing antitrust lawsuit.

The case revolves around AMD’s allegations that Intel used offers of exclusive deals and threats of price increases to maintain a monopoly in the worldwide market for x86 microprocessors in the four years up to June 2005, when AMD filed its complaint.

AMD wants Intel to produce documents that AMD says will show evidence of coercion and other misconduct directed at microprocessor customers outside the United States.

The company suffered a setback in its case on Sept. 26, when Judge Joseph Farnan ruled that the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware did not have jurisdiction over claims arising from sales to customers outside the United States of microprocessors made at AMD’s plant in Germany.

However, Intel is using that ruling to justify withholding documents relating to sales to U.S. customers of chips made at the German plant, and of chips made in the United States sold to customers elsewhere, AMD spokesman Michael Silverman wrote in an e-mail. The Sept. 26 ruling should apply only to the damages that AMD can seek, and not to the scope of the discovery process, he said.

AMD’s motion, filed with the Delaware court on Monday, concludes: “Evidence of Intel’s foreign exclusionary conduct is directly relevant to proof of AMD’s claims for damages based on lost sales to U.S. customers and in the export trade. AMD’s motion to compel Intel to produce foreign conduct documents … should accordingly be granted.”

Silverman expects a final decision on the motion to compel in early December, with the trial beginning in April 2009.

Intel staff in Europe could not immediately be reached for comment. AMD staff referred questions to the company’s lawyers in the United States.

-Peter Sayer, IDG News Service (Paris Bureau)

Related Links:

• AMD Dealt a Blow in Case Against Intel

• E.U. Preps Possible Legal Action Against Intel

• E.U. Expands Intel Investigation

• Intel Takes on AMD in Chinese Internet Cafes

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