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Intergraph Files Objections to Intel's Injunction Appeal

Intergraph says it will suffer competitively if Intel does not supply chip samples.

By James Niccolai, PCWorld   

Intergraph's filing comes in response to Intel's appeal of a preliminary injunction awarded against it in April of this year by U.S. District Court, Northern District of Alabama, which ordered Intel to resume the supply of product samples and information to Intergraph.

Intel said in its appeal, filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, that Intergraph had not proven Intel is a monopoly as defined by antitrust law, nor that its actions harmed competition.

However, Intergraph said in its brief filed Tuesday that Intel's appeal of the injunction failed to mount notable challenges to three of the four factors supporting the injunction, including that Intergraph would suffer irreparable harm if it were denied the information. Intergraph says it cannot build workstations without samples and information about future Intel products.

Intergraph sued Intel in November of last year, alleging that the chip giant coerced it into handing over certain technology patents by cutting off advance Intel product information that Intergraph needs to build its workstations. Because Intel is the dominant supplier of chips to the PC industry, depriving Intergraph of the ability to use its products represents a threat to competition, and is therefore a violation of antitrust law, Intergraph argued in its lawsuit.

The U.S. District Court in Northern Alabama determined in April of this year that Intergraph is likely to win its case based on the merits, and ordered Intel to provide Intergraph with the advance product information it needs for the duration of the case.

Meanwhile the U.S. Federal Trade Commission , which has lodged an antitrust lawsuit against Intel in part because of Intel's alleged mistreatment of Intergraph, on Tuesday finalized a consent order related to Digital Equipment's sale of its semiconductor manufacturing assets to Intel.

As part of that sale, Intel would become the main supplier of Digital's 64-bit Alpha processor, which Digital would then market and sell. Intel is planning to release in 2000 its own 64-bit chip, Merced, which is expected to compete with Alpha. the FTC's order issued Tuesday requires Digital to start looking for an alternative supplier of the chips, including possibly IBM or Samsung Electronics.