Intel says Global Foundries is not AMD's subsidiary, warns of patent agreement violation

After fighting few long patent battles in 90s, Intel and AMD had come to some cool agreement with not much news of patent agreement violation. But with inauguration of AMD's new foundry services company globalfoundries, Intel has alleged that AMD breached 2001 patent cross-license agreement signed between INTEL and AMD.

As per Intel, Global Foundries is not a subsidiary under terms of the agreement and is therefore not licensed under the 2001 patent cross-license agreement. Intel also said the structure of the deal between AMD and ATIC breaches a confidential portion of that agreement.

"AMD cannot unilaterally extend Intel's licensing rights to a third party without Intel's consent," said Bruce Sewell, senior vice president and general counsel for Intel.

Semiconductor industry is all about patents; there is no other business on this earth, which relies on patents for business growth as much as semiconductor equipment and fabrication industry relies on.
It's going to be a good business option for legal companies to have exclusive semiconductor domain.