SINGAPORE, 17 MARCH 2009 - Advanced Micro Devices agreed to an Intel offer to make public the terms of a cross-license agreement at the heart of a dispute between the two companies. But there's one condition: in return, AMD wants Intel to lift a demand that evidence submitted in its U.S. antitrust suit against the chip maker be kept confidential.
On Monday, Intel notified AMD that it believed the terms of the cross-license agreement were violated when AMD spun off its manufacturing arm as a joint-venture company, GlobalFoundries. AMD denied the charge, and fired back with its own notification that Intel's actions had violated the cross-license agreement, which Intel in turn denied.
Trying to determine whether or not these claims have merit is more difficult for industry observers because the full terms of the cross-license are confidential. An Intel spokesman said the chip maker was willing to make the agreement made public, but said AMD prevented this from happening,
"We are willing to make the entire agreement public. We've told AMD we would be fine with making the entire agreement public," said Chuck Mulloy, an Intel spokesman. "AMD has declined to do so."
In response, AMD said it was willing to make the agreement public provided Intel lifted demands for confidentiality in the antitrust suit.
"We will make the entire cross-license agreement public if they drop their insistence on secrecy on the evidence in the U.S. antitrust case," said Patrick Moorhead, vice president of marketing at AMD, in an e-mail.
AMD filed the U.S. antitrust suit against Intel in 2005.
