FTC Dismisses Rambus Antitrust Case

By Marcus Yam
published

Rambus off the hook for antitrust claims.

We’ve heard about how Rambus has been going around to other companies with patent claims, which has lead other memory companies believe that Rambus is engaging in anticompetitive practices. The Federal Trade Commission doesn’t seem to think so, as today it dropped its claim that Rambus violated antitrust laws in patenting technologies that were eventually incorporated into industry standards.

“We are pleased to have finally put this matter behind us,” said Thomas Lavelle, senior vice president and general counsel at Rambus. “Rambus has prevailed on similar JEDEC-related claims at the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, in front of a jury, and before a federal district court. The FTC’s decision to drop its remaining JEDEC-related claim against us was the right one.”

The FTC originally brought charges against Rambus in 2002 relating to the memory company’s 1992-1995 participation in an industry standard setting committee, the Joint Electron Device Engineering Council (JEDEC).

Just this past March, Hynix agreed to pay Rambus royalties and damages for memory technologies.

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
16 Comments Comment from the forums
  • crisisavatar
    kami3kSigh, I thought it was a law suit that RAMBUS was doing that was dismissed. Really wished this one went through, they help the industry not one bit.+1
    Reply
  • SirCrono
    Yhea, Rambus ought to be shut down for good, or denied court privileges at least, they just hurt the consummer with those trivial lawsuits.
    Reply
  • IronRyan21
    The FTC originally brought charges against Rambus in 2002 relating to the memory company’s 1992-1995 participation in an industry standard setting committee, the Joint Electron Device Engineering Council (JEDEC).

    Wow, RAMBUS is so irrelevent. In 1995 my PC consisted of Intel Pentium 1 75 mhz, 1 gb HDD, win 95, and I think I had 8 mb of ram.
    Reply
  • RAMBUS - The number no. 1 company on my list of most hated. I hope they do a SCO.
    Reply
  • Greatwalrus
    Someone should ram a bus into their corporate headquarters.


    They're the last thing the memory industry needs right now. I wish this case would have or could get in front of the EU, that would be interesting.
    Reply
  • megamanx00
    Rambus purposely tried to get technology into DDR standards that they had patents to that the others did not know about. I believe they did this so that even if their RDRAM tanked, which it did, they could turn around and say that companies making competing RAM were infringing on their patents and try to collect royalties. Sounds pretty anti competitive to me.
    Reply
  • solymnar
    Rambus is like this evil zombie that never dies....

    You always hope that it will somehow get turned to ashes and launched into the sun...but no...it keeps rising and jacking with things.

    They are clearly pretty proud of themselves...maybe if they are so smart...they could...

    1) come up with memory technology that doesn't fail

    2) come up with anything new in the last 15 years that is marketable
    Reply
  • You people know nothing about Rambus. The Memory cartel knew that Rambus patented technology was far superior to anything out there and decided to steal it instead of pay for it and drag it out in the courts for 15 years. ALL memory currently in use is based on Rambus patented technology. And as far as coming up with anything new, ever heard of XDR? Look it up moron.
    Reply
  • cliffro
    icpjb sounds like a RAMBUS stockholder or employee.
    Reply
  • deltatux
    I think the only product that I've used from Rambus is the XDR found in the Playstation 3. DDR is where it's at now, why bother fighting an industry standard?
    Reply