The tale of Rambus' standardization skullduggery in developing JEDEC's SDRAM standard has unfolded in many Micro Law columns since the first report in the May/June 2001 issue. In February 2007, the FTC issued its final order on remedy for Rambus' unlawful conduct, holding, 3 to 2, that it would be proper to allow Rambus to continue to charge royalties for its abused patents (those used in the JEDEC standard), but the royalty should be limited to a maximum rate of 0.5 percent for double-data-rate (DDR) SDRAMs and a 0.25 percent maximum rate for SDRAMs--for three years, and after that zero. Stern's analysis, drawing on the "benefit of the bargain rule " is that Rambus should not be allowed to collect any royalties at all on the abused patents.
Index Terms:
law, standardization, Rambus, antitrust violation, patents, skullduggery, Secret Squirrel, SDRAM, DDR SDRAM, JEDEC
Citation:
Richard Stern, "Coming down the home stretch in the Rambus standardization skullduggery saga: To levy or not to levy royalties," IEEE Micro, vol. 27, no. 2, pp. 80-82, Mar./Apr. 2007, doi:10.1109/MM.2007.30
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