FTC Quits Rambus Case

The US Federal Trade Commission today dropped its antitrust case against memory producer Rambus. The company had previously been found guilty of abusing its monopoly power but successfully won an appeal in 2008; the FTC's decision to quit follows after its own appeal was rejected in February and the government body considered its options. Officials say the departure comes after they decide it would "not be in the public interest" to pursue Rambus further.

Rambus is best known for both the RDRAM used with Pentium 4-based computers as well as the XDR in the PlayStation 3. The former was a factor when the case began in 2002 as Rambus was accused of secretly patenting technologies while it was part of the JEDEC group that manages standards for RAM. Companies quickly complained when the company began charging royalties for the use of its memory patents, adding to the cost of computers that used Rambus RAM.

The company has regularly used legal action as part of its core business strategy and has lately targeted both Hynix and NVIDIA with the aim of collecting royalties on their products.

By Electronista Staff