The US Court of Appeals affirmed a lower federal court's ruling on
Friday that Intel did not break federal antitrust laws in its
dealings with technical solutions and systems integration company
Intergraph
Intergraph filed suit against Intel in 1997, claiming that the chip
manufacturer infringed on Intergraph's patents for Clipper
microprocessors, a series of chips used in a discontinued line of
workstations. The company also claimed that Intel withheld future
product information from Intergraph, preventing the company from
developing new products by using monopoly market position.
US district judge Edwin Nelson ruled against Intergraph on the
patent infringement charge in October 1999 and, in March 2000,
threw out the charge that Intel had broken federal antitrust
regulations in March 2000.
The federal appellate court upheld Nelson's antitrust ruling on
Friday, but Intergraph's chief executive officer said that it still
has appeals pending regarding the patent infringement case and
other issues.
"While we continue to believe that Intel abused its monopoly
position in an effort to coerce a royalty-free right to use our
Clipper technology, we do not consider the antitrust claims
material to our case or our damages," said James Taylor,
Intergraph's chief executive officer.
"Any compensatory damages available for the antitrust claims are
also available for our business tort and contract claims.
Intergraph will now focus on these claims and on our patent
infringement claims, which are our number one priority."