Judge Joseph Farnan, of the U.S. District Court in Delaware, has dismissed a large portion of AMD"s antitrust lawsuit against Intel, saying that U.S. law does not cover many of AMD"s claims.
Sunnyvale, Calif.-based AMD accused Intel in its 2005 lawsuit of building up a dominant market share for some microprocessors by engaging in anticompetitive conduct, including forcing major customers not to buy AMD products.
Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel countered that AMD was seeking damages mostly for lost sales of German-made, Asian-assembled microprocessors to foreign customers. It called such damages "a foreign antitrust injury (if it is one at all) for which the U.S. courts cannot provide relief," according to a May 2 court filing.
Farnan accepted this argument, concluding that he lacked jurisdiction over AMD"s claims based on conduct and harm that took place outside the United States.
AMD spokesman Mike Silverman said: "Notwithstanding the judge"s ruling today, Intel cannot escape antitrust scrutiny for its conduct wherever in the world it occurs. As this U.S. litigation is joined by global antitrust investigations, it is clear that Intel cannot escape the consequences of its illegal monopoly abuses."