FTC Seeks Immediate Antitrust Ruling Against Rambus
By Alex Romanelli -- EDN, January 17, 2003
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is asking a federal judge for an immediate antitrust ruling against Rambus Inc. The Los Altos, Calif.-based memory company denies any wrong doings and believes this is a last ditch attempt by the FTC before the case falls apart.
“The discovery we’ve undertaken the last month has blasted huge holes in their allegation,” said John Danforth, Rambus’ general counsel. “That is the timing of this. We’re on the eve, I think, of a court of appeals decision in a related case that should also deal fatal damage to their claims. [The FTC’s] motion relies on a case that was litigated in 2001 in Virginia against Infineon. In the Infineon case there were some very damaging findings against Rambus, including that we somehow committed fraud in JEDEC and also that we destroyed documents.”
The FTC could not be reached for comment, but its court filing reads in part, “Not only have Rambus current and former employees sought to put a positive gloss on the ‘document retention’ policy, but some have apparently provided testimony that is flat out untruthful.”
Danforth is convinced an appeal ruling in Rambus’ favor is imminent, and that such a ruling would seriously undermine the FTC’s case against Rambus. The discovery period includes Rambus releasing 500,000 documents to the FTC, Danforth said.
The FTC is arguing that Rambus had forfeited its right to a trial, citing the company for willful, bad-faith destruction of material evidence, including shredding of valuable documents.
“That is total lunacy,” said John Danforth, Rambus’ legal counsel. “The document retention destruction policy we had was the same every company has. It was back in 1998, two years before the FTC investigation even started. We’ve put in proof that we didn’t target documents relevant to this case. By making this motion, particularly now before the half-million documents we’re producing, they are admitting they are in desperate shape. They’re chucking the ball down the field, hoping someone is there to catch it.”
The FTC’s ongoing investigation of Rambus began in 2000 and is centered around the question of whether Rambus fully disclosed its SDRAM patents while it was participating in JEDEC discussions aimed at establishing an industry standard. If the FTC’s complaint is successful, it could force Rambus to walk away from enforcing patent claims worth over a billion dollars in royalties from memory-chip makers.
