FTC: Final Order and Opinion in Rambus Matter
Yesterday, the FTC issued a final order and opinion in the Matter of Rambus, Inc. According to the press release:
In addition to barring Rambus from making misrepresentations or omissions to standard-setting organizations, the order requires Rambus to license its SDRAM and DDR SDRAM technology and sets maximum allowable royalty rates it can collect for the licensing, bars Rambus from collecting or attempting to collect more than the maximum allowable royalty rates from companies that may already have incorporated its DRAM technology, and requires Rambus to employ a Commission-approved compliance officer to ensure that Rambus’s patents and patent applications are disclosed to industry standard-setting bodies in which it participates. The order is designed to remedy the effects of the unlawful monopoly Rambus established in the markets for four computer memory technologies that have been incorporated into industry standards for dynamic random access memory – DRAM chips. DRAMs are widely used in personal computers, servers, printers, and cameras.
The vote was 3-2 (Commissioners Pamela Jones Harbour and J. Thomas Rosch concurred in part and dissented in part; each issued separate statemetns: Harbour’s statement and Rosch’s statement).
The Rambus matter is one of the longer-running and more interesting IP/Antitrust cases at the FTC in recent years.
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