FTC Takes Case Against Rambus to the Supreme Court

The U.S Supreme Court has been asked by the Federal Trade Commission to intervene in a case in which Rambus, a memory maker known for its legal actions against some of the major players on the hardware computer market, is accused to have demonstrated anticompetitive behavior and deceived the Joint Electron Device Engineering Council (JEDEC), when a number of standards have been set.

FTC's actions comes after the Commission lost its case against Rambus in April 2008, as the U.S Court of Appeals from the District of Columbia Circuit didn't agree with the case. The accusations brought by the agency to the company included Rambus' actions of persuading industry groups to declare a standard for the memory that was then used in PCs, servers, printers and cameras, failing to indicate that it was the owner of patents for those technologies.

According to a news-article on computerworld, the FTC accused Rambus of antitrust actions, in 2002, and, after a trial, the full commission reversed a decision taken by Chief Administrative Law Judge Stephen McGuire, who initially ruled in favor of Rambus, in early 2004. Later on, in 2006, the FTC charged Rambus with illegal monopoly activities, claiming that Rambus illegally monopolized markets for computer memory technologies, as it didn't disclose the fact that it owned patents on DRAM technology, while collaborating with JEDEC.

Early last year, FTC once again engaged in a legal dispute with Rambus, which the company won in the appeals court. Back then, the FTC required Rambus to license its DRAM chips to other companies. In addition, the FTC reduced the royalty fees that Rambus could charge. After winning the case, the company said that it was pleased with the decision of the appeals court.

"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," Tom Lavelle, Rambus' senior vice president and general counsel, said, in a statement back then. "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."

If the FTC manages to win its case against Rambus, this could also enable other major companies, such as NVIDIA to use its products without having to pay royalties to Rambus.