Advanced Micro Devices said that it was confident that Intel Corp. would not be able to cancel the cross-licensing agreement between the two companies after AMD spun off its manufacturing facilities into Globalfoundries contract maker of semiconductors. AMD implied in an interview that cross-licensing is a two-way agreement and it impacts interests of both parties.

“It’s one of those areas that we weren’t concerned with, [and] we obviously would not have done and structured the deal the way we had, thinking there was some challenge with the licensing and structure. You're not hearing anything about [the issue] now; we’re not concerned with it. The license goes both ways. What (Intel) neglected to (say) is that it's a cross-license agreement, not a one-way agreement,” said Benjamin Williams, AMD's corporate vice president and Asia-Pacific general manager, in an interview with ZDNet Asia.

Intel believes that Globalfoundries, manufacturing joint venture between AMD and Advanced Technology Investment Company, 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. Intel has asked AMD to make the relevant portion of the agreement public, but so far AMD has declined to do so. AMD's breach could result in the loss of licenses and rights granted to AMD by Intel under the agreement.

However, cancellation of the agreement would also impact Intel itself as there are technologies patented by AMD inside Intel’s own microprocessors.

Intel did not comment on the news-story.

Tags: AMD, Intel, x86, TFC, Asset smart, Globalfoundries