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Technology Stocks : Intel Corporation (INTC) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dave who wrote (160457)	2/27/2002 3:18:49 PM
From: Paul Engel	Respond to of 186894

URL: cbs.marketwatch.com Judge favors Intel over Intergraph in preliminary patent-case ruling Last Update: 9:00 PM ET Mar 13, 2000 NewsWatch BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) -- A federal judge dismissed a portion of Intergraph's lawsuit accusing Intel of infringing on its patents, using coercive business practices and violating antitrust laws. Intel (INTC: news, msgs) sought a summary judgment after a federal appeals court in November lifted an order requiring the computer chip manufacturer to turn over certain proprietary information to Huntsville-based Intergraph (INGR: news, msgs). "We were not truly surprised by this ruling because of the nature on which (U.S. District Judge Edwin Nelson) based the ruling," David Lucas, Intergraph's senior counsel, said Monday. "He did not make a factual decision. It was done as a rule of law based on this decision by the federal circuit." Nelson said in a written opinion issued Friday that the appeals court effectively closed the door on Intergraph's claims that Intel had an illegal monopoly in the microprocessor market. The judge agreed with Intel's contention that the antitrust complaints didn't apply because the two companies were not competitors. "Basically what the judge said and the appeals court said was that antitrust laws don't apply here and we've said that from the very beginning," said Chuck Mulloy, a spokesman for Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel. The ruling doesn't affect other aspects of Intergraph's suit. Intergraph has asked for a continuance for the trial, scheduled to begin June 20, saying an appeal of Monday's ruling would hinge on the outcome of a patent infringement suit involving Xerox Corp. (XRX: news, msgs) and Hewlett-Packard (HWP: news, msgs). A federal court dismissed Xerox's lawsuit last September. "We've been advised that case was going to be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court," Lucas said. "We feel this will continue to be a confused area of law until the Supreme Court does make a ruling on Xerox." Intergraph's suit claims it owns the patent to microprocessor technology used in Intel's Pentium processor. The corporation says that when it requested compensation for Intel's use of the technology, Intel began withholding needed parts and technical support. Intel says it had rights to the technology under a 1976 agreement with National Semiconductor Corp. [s; nsm], but Intergraph attorneys claim Intergraph bought the rights from what is now a National subsidiary in 1987. © 2000 The Associated Press - All Rights Reserved. The information in this report may not be published