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

To: Tony Viola who wrote (56153)	5/28/1998 6:28:00 PM
From: Joey Smith	Respond to of 186894

All: Looks like this guy Rule knows what he is talking about.. Federal Trade Commission Readies Intel Suit (05/28/98; 2:44 p.m. ET) By Mary Mosquera, TechWeb The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is expected to slap Intel with an antitrust lawsuit for allegedly using its monopoly power illegally against PC makers that use its microprocessors. An FTC spokeswoman said Thursday she could not comment on agency investigations. Howard Morse, former assistant director of the FTC's Bureau of Competition and now an attorney at Drinker, Biddle & Reath in Washington, D.C., said any antitrust suit the government would bring against Intel, if it did act, would draw upon legal proceedings related to Intergraph, a workstation maker based in Huntsville, Ala. Intergraph filed a lawsuit in November against Intel (company profile) charging anticompetitive behavior, patent infringement, and antitrust claims. A federal district court judge in Alabama granted Intergraph a preliminary injunction last month, ordering Intel to provide the company with the same level of technical information and chips as it provides to other workstation makers. "Having monopoly power is not illegal -- it is how it is gained or maintained," Morse said. "But to file an antitrust suit, one needs monopoly power and predatory conduct." The five FTC commissioners must authorize the filing of an injunction in court or the issuance of a complaint to be heard before an administrative law judge. An antitrust lawsuit against the Santa Clara, Calif.-based chip maker would complete the trustbusters' response to the Wintel cartel of Microsoft and Intel, which dominate the brains and operations of most of the world's computers. The U.S. Department of Justice and 20 states filed broad antitrust lawsuits, which were combined earlier this month in federal court in Washington, D.C. That trial is set for Sept. 8. Both Justice and the FTC investigate antitrust allegations that are violations of the Sherman Act, passed in the late 1800s to break up the industry barons. Blocking competition and predatory pricing are key violations of the Sherman Act. Charles "Rick" Rule held Joel Klein's position as head of the antitrust division at Justice, and most recently, has been a legal consultant for Microsoft. The government's interference in intellectual property is undermining corporate rights, said Rule, who is an attorney at Washington's Covington & Burling. "This is a further reflection from a policy standpoint, and it is a troubling trend," said Rule regarding the possible FTC antitrust suit against Intel. "It is unfair to prejudge the FTC because we don't know if they are going to file or what is in the suit," he said. "But if the view is that simply because the company has gotten to a successful position in intellectual property it can be forced to give access to that information -- even to non-competitors, then it is a bit difficult to understand just what our intellectual property rights systems is." Maynard, Mass.-based Digital Equipment agreed to dismiss its lawsuit against Intel last week for infringement of intellectual property after it announced the sale of its Alpha chip manufacturing facilities to Intel. The sale, valued at $625 million, includes operations in Hudson, Mass.; Austin, Texas; and Israel. "We have been trying to get other countries to respect U.S. intellectual property rights -- they have spurred a huge increase in innovation," Rule said. "But if antitrust officials are going to go around and bring cases that disrespect intellectual property rights, that [say] owners do not have the right to control those rights, then the intellectual property protections of third-world countries will look good compared to ours," he said. There has been a legal appreciation built up over the past 20 years that intellectual property and antitrust are at odds, Rule said. Bringing this antitrust lawsuit, he added, "undermines incentives to invest in technology, which has brought better products to consumers."

To: Tony Viola who wrote (56153)	5/28/1998 7:21:00 PM
From: Jacob Snyder	Respond to of 186894

OT:Tony: re: sawbones and nerds: Sawbones is a term noone uses anymore, but there are certainly many pithy phrases I've heard to describe "what all doctors are like". When I hear them, I just smile, say something vague, and forget it. I have a thick skin. You know what I mean when I say "nerd". It describes Gore quickly and accurately: very smart, more comfortable around ideas than people, awkward, stiff, you listen to him and then think, "that's probably profound, but I don't know what he said".