News

posted on 23 April 2008 05:38

A US Court of Appeals has overturned the Federal Trade Commission's characterisation of memory technology licensing company Rambus as a monopolist and told it to think again.

The FTC brought anti-trust charges against Rambus in 2002. A trial in 2003 denied the FTC's case. It appealed and won with Rambus liable for violating Section 2 of the Sherman Act. That decision has now been reversed.

The background to this is the setting of standards for DRAM by JEDEC, the Joint Electron Device Engineering Council, which sets standards for semi-conductor memory and similar technologies. Micron, Hynix and other DRAM manufacturers contend that Rambus has engaged in monoplistic behaviour and the FTC took action against Rambus on this matter.

In the decision and order by the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit it was stated that: "the Commission failed to demonstrate that Rambus' conduct was exclusionary and thus to establish its claim that Rambus unlawfully monopolized the relevant markets." Also the Court expressed "serious concerns about the strength of the evidence relied on to support some of the Commission's crucial findings."

The FTC has been told to reconsider its position towards Rambus.

Tom Lavelle, Rambus' general counsel, said: "We are very pleased with this decision by the DC Court of Appeals. As we have contended all along, Rambus did nothing wrong during its participation in the JEDEC standard-setting organization, and now the Court of Appeals has confirmed our point of view. Rambus has had to endure years of uncertainty, lost business and enormous legal fees defending this case, and we are thrilled to have this portion behind us. This decision, especially combined with the jury verdict in March  reaching the same conclusion, should put the issue to rest and allow us to focus on running our business."

So it should, so long as the FTC doesn't appeal to a higher court.

^{[Paul Roberts, news editor.]}