Intel-FTC witness list takes shape
Some of the top hardware executives and antitrust experts are being lined up to testify in the Federal Trade Commission's antitrust suit against Intel.
Topping the list of high tech executives that may appear in the action are Advanced Micro Device's chief operating officer Atiq Raza, Intergraph chief executive Jim Meadlock, and two of his top lieutenants, sources familiar with the case say. Their testimony is expected to go to the heart of FTC allegations that Intel used its might in the market for microchips to bully companies into licensing their intellectual property in ways that benefited Intel.
Sources say the trial will also include two of the nation's leading economists. University of California professor Carl Shapiro will argue on Intel's behalf that the company does not posses monopoly power in any market, a key issue in the case.
Frederic M. Scherer, an economist at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, meanwhile, is expected to testify for the FTC that, in fact, Intel is a monopolist.
Intel has hired other big gun experts witnesses as well, including Harry Manbeck, a former commissioner at the Patent and Trademark Office and General Electric's general patent counsel for 20 years, and Roger Milgrim, a private attorney whose book Milgrim on Trade Secrets is considered the definitive resource on the topic. Alan J. Smith, a computer science professor from the University of California, will appear on Intel's behalf as well.
In a complaint filed in June, the FTC accused Intel of illegally wielding its alleged monopoly power in the microprocessor market to force computer makers Intergraph, Digital Equipment, and Compaq Computer to license their technology in ways that benefited Intel. The chip giant denies any wrongdoing.
Intel's legal team comes from the company's long time outside firm Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, a firm known for expertise in both high technology and antitrust litigation. In 1993 the firm successfully defended American Airlines in a predatory conduct case against Continental and Northwest Airlines. In that case, the Gibson Dunn team went up against David Boies, the Justice Department's lead attorney in the Microsoft antitrust trial.
Sources close to the case say Intel is pinning its hopes on Shapiro, a professor at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business and former chief economist at the Justice Department's antitrust division. Shapiro, who is expected to argue that Intel is not a monopolist, is held in high esteem in government and industry circles alike.
Other names on a list of potential witnesses include:
As both sides fine tune their cases, they must prepare themselves for the potential wild card that a federal appeals court may rule as early as this summer in the related antitrust and patent case brought by Intergraph. A lower court decision in that case held that Intel violated antitrust laws when it threatened to withhold key technical information if Intergraph did not agree to cross-license its intellectual property.
Last April, the judge in that case said it was likely Intergraph would prevail in its lawsuit and ordered Intel to make key technical information available to Intergraph. That preliminary injunction is now on appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and may well to have a strong effect on the FTC/Intel case.