Nec Electronics Inc saidthe U.S. Ninth District Circuit Court of Appeals has agreed to
hear the company's petition seeking the disqualification of the
judge presiding over its lawsuit against Intel Corp &lt;INTC.O>.
    In granting the hearing the court directed Intel to respond
to the NEC petition by July 16, NEC said.
    The petition stems from a suit filed by NEC against Intel
in 1984.
    In its complaint NEC is seeking a judgement stating that
microcode is not copyrightable subject matter and that the
microcode NEC uses in its V-Series microprocessors does not
infringe on any valid Intel corprights.
    During May last year the judge presiding over the case,
William Ingram, submitted a financial disclosure report to the
U.S. Judicial Conference which showed that he owned Intel stock
through an investment club throughout the proceedings, NEC
said.
 Reuter
