Intel Corp (INTC)

[Windsock]

AMD is just making noises to confuse the issues surrounding the License Agreement. AMD is correct that there is no technology agreement that licenses trade secrets or a mask set as there was in the old days of second source agreements with AMD that allowed AMD to make copies of Intel's X86 designs. But The technology agreement is a straw man argument.

However, AMD needs a patent license use Intel's patent portfolio in order to make and sell microprocessors. Probably the most important part of Intel's patent portfolio are the semiconductor process patents. Many of the basic X86 patents have expired but Intel continued to file patents on various microarchitecture designs that may be used by AMD.

The absence of a patent license would allow Intel to assert patent infringement against AMD and after many years of litigation, Intel could get a court to stop AMD from manufacturing microprocessors. In the meantime AMD would just pay the lawyers. When AMD loses the patent suit it will say oh by the way we changed our process so lets start over again with a law suit against the new generation process.