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Intel hits back over AMD lawsuit

Michael Kanellos CNET News

Published: 30 Jun 2005 09:35 BST

Intel chief executive Paul Otellini on Wednesday defended his company against new legal attacks from AMD.

AMD filed a lawsuit against Intel on Monday in US District Court in Delaware. The rival chipmaker claims that Intel is using monopolistic business practices, such as threatening retaliation against customers who do business with AMD. AMD is asking the court to impose punitive damages.

The man who recently replaced Craig Barrett as Intel's CEO said his company has been involved in other antitrust suits, has faced similar issues before and expects to come out on top of this one as well.

"Intel has always respected the laws of the countries in which we operate," Otellini said in a statement. "We compete aggressively and fairly to deliver the best value to consumers. This will not change."

Intel was able to stare down an antitrust lawsuit Intergraph filed against the chipmaking giant back in 2000. The case was eventually settled.

After a raid on its offices in Japan, Intel agreed to work with Japan's Fair Trade Commission (JFTC), which accused Intel of offering rebates to five Japanese PC makers — Fujitsu, Hitachi, NEC, Sony and Toshiba — in exchange for refusing to buy or to limit their purchases of chips made by AMD and Transmeta.

So far, no trial date has been set. Lawyers predict the lawsuit could take about 18 months to go to trial.

Meanwhile, AMD began running full-page ads in newspapers today to outline the reasons for its antitrust lawsuit and to issue a call to action.

The ad, which ran in newspapers from The New York Times to Capitol Hill's Roll Call, expands AMD's legal fight into the realms of public relations and public policy.