Intel Corporation announced Friday that it has filed suit against Advanced Micro Devices Inc and Cyrix Corp, claiming infringement of Intel’s MMX trademark. While Intel has cross-licensing deals with the two companies for the use of the media-enhancement technology, it disputes the use of the term MMX by anyone other than Intel. An application for a trademark for MMX has been pending with the US Department of Commerce since January 1996, according to Intel. An Intel spokesman described the situation as a legitimate business disagreement and said that the three companies have been involved in discussion of the subject since last autumn with no resolution. Intel is asking the others to market products as compatible with MMX technology and not as MMX products. Intel felt it had to act now because AMD and Cyrix are soon bringing products to market under the disputed name. Intel sees the potential for confusion as detrimental to its vast investment in the technology and feels the suit is partly out of an obligation to its shareholders. A spokesman for AMD, who plans to launch its K6 MMX processor on April 2, sees no merit in the suit. He maintains that MMX is a generic term that describes a certain capability and has been in common use for years. He described the suit as an attempt to scare the market and screw the launch of our product. Phone calls to Cyrix were not returned.
