Consultant Firm Sues Alphawave for Nonpayment of Services Related to Intel IP Deal
Alphawave IP breached an agreement with consulting firm HPC Americas by refusing to pay monies owed for a successful introduction to Intel decision makers, alleged HPC's May 7 fraud complaint (docket 5:24-cv-03761) removed Monday from Santa Clara County Superior Court to U.S. District Court for Northern California in San Jose.
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In August 2022, Alphawave asked plaintiff HPC to promote its intellectual property cores to key Intel executives for a “chiplet” to be used in the company’s next-generation graphics processor, Falcon Shores, the complaint said. In September, Alphawave agreed by email that the commission for HPC’s services to begin discussions with Intel would be 7% of the orders Alphawave received for the Intel products, it said. In November, Alphawave and HPC signed a sales representative agreement, it said.
After HPC’s involvement, Alphawave was able to “begin the discussion with the correct decision maker at Intel,” and the chipmaker’s engineering team ultimately approved Alphawave’s IP for the targeted products, the complaint said. In July 2023, after the closing of the deal, HPC asked the defendant to pay the “agreed-upon commission” for the introduction to Intel executives that led to the tech companies’ agreement, but its request was rejected, the complaint said. The next month, Alphawave sent the plaintiff a notice to terminate their agreement, it said.
Alphawave refused to pay HPC based on the allegation that it closed its IP deal with Intel subsidiary Habana, “which is not Intel,” the complaint said. HPC objected to the defendant’s “sudden denial of payment” after the consultant “successfully facilitated and solicited orders for licensing” of Alphawave’s IP, it said.
HPC believes it had been operating as a sales representative of Alphawave since “at least September 2022,” making calls, giving progress reports, setting up and attending meetings with Intel on behalf of Alphawave and advising on Intel’s “concerns and reservations” in doing business with the defendant, said the complaint. At the same time, despite HPC’s “multiple requests” to make the written contract final, Alphawave continued to delay the signing of the arrangement with HPC while its consulting services “continued to benefit Defendants for over two months,” the complaint alleged.
HPC claims breach of contract, breach of covenant of good faith and fair dealing, and quantum meruit. The company requests compensatory damages, interest, reasonable attorneys’ fees and legal costs. Alphawave didn’t comment Tuesday.