The lawsuit between Intel and AMD was settled a few weeks ago, five years after it was first filed by AMD. This was a private civil lawsuit; various government investigations are still going. According to reports, Intel agreed to pay $1,250,000,000, and to extend various license agreements with AMD. ($1.25 billion)

I was an expert witness on the case, which was an interesting experience to say the least. As an academic, I wish there were a way to use the data from civil lawsuits  cases for academic research. Of course, the confidential data itself has to be kept secret, but in principle it should often be possible to find ways to provide high-level analysis without revealing anything private.  As far as I know, though, this is never done. Certainly the standard agreements for using the data don’t allow it, and in practice it would probably take an agreement by both sides. The companies don’t seem to have much incentive to allow this. (I’m not speaking of AMD or Intel  or anything about this case in particular.)

There’s one  situation where some of the data does come out, namely if the case actually goes to trial. An example was the US vs Microsoft case in the late 1990s. But this is very rare – most cases settle before trial, and even when they don’t I gather that agreements to seal the data are standard.