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A U.S. judge has dismissed a complaint brought against Rambus by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission that the company tried to unfairly monopolize the memory-chip market.
Judge Stephen J. McGuire, the FTC's chief administrative law judge presiding over the case, dismissed the case in its entirety, ruling that the FTC failed to establish liability for the violations alleged, according to a statement on the FTC Web site.
The FTC sued Rambus, of Los Altos, California, in June 2002, charging the company with violating federal antitrust laws by engaging in a pattern of anticompetitive acts and practices that served to deceive an industry-wide standard-setting organization, resulting in adverse effects on competition and consumers.
Different Opinions
According to the FTC, Rambus from 1992 to 1995 took part in standards-setting activity regarding SDRAM technology with the Joint Electron Device Engineering Council Solid State Technology Association (JEDEC), but did not disclose that it had also filed for patents to cover technologies involved in the standard.
Rambus has said that it complied with JEDEC's rules and that it filed a patent application for its memory technology in 1990, after which it was invited to join the group to develop a related standard. Several chip makers have licensed Rambus' patents, while others have challenged the validity of Rambus' patents in court.
The decision to dismiss the complaint is subject to review by the full FTC and by a United States Court of Appeal, Rambus and the FTC say in separate statements.
