In what looks like a humiliating climbdown after all the aggressive and bitter noises Eckhard Pfeiffer was making on the record about Intel Corp and its practices in late 1994, Compaq Computer Corp has swallowed its pride, signed a comprehensivepatent cross-licence agreement with Intel, to run for 10 years, and agreed to put the Intel Inside stickers on its machines again. Under the new agreement, Compaq is entitled to discounts on its advertising by agreeing to put the Intel Inside logo on its computers and in its ads. Intel pays part of the bill for Intel Inside ads. The cross-licence agreement means Intel can avoid being drawn into Compaq’s patent lawsuit against Packard Bell Electronics Corp: many of Packard Bell’s machines use Intel motherboards so Compaq would have been in the position of suing Intel in the Packard Bell trial.The other big complaint about Intel was the fact that Intel was helping Compaq competitors by selling them motherboards; that looks a little specious now Compaq itself is buying Pentium Pro boards from Intel.
