The EU has been quiet on the issue since 2003, and in March this year Infineon Technologies AG, which made the original complaint, appeared to settle its five-year legal battle with Rambus by agreeing to license the company’s patents.
While a spokesperson at Infineon was baffled over the EU probe in view of the settlement, an official at the Competition Commission told ComputerWire: It’s an ongoing investigation.
The EU’s inquiry mirrors legal action by the Federal Trade Commission against Rambus, which stems from the company’s participation in industry standards organization the Joint Electron Device Engineering Council, JEDEC. The allegations are that Rambus used its membership to promote a Synchronous DRAM standard while at the same time amending its patents to cover the JEDEC DRAM specifications. The FTC action against Rambus, which began in 2002, was dismissed by a court last year but the FTC is appealing against that decision.
The news that the EU is conducting a parallel inquiry will come as a surprise to Rambus. According to its latest quarterly filing with the SEC, Rambus received courtesy copies of requests for information from the European Commission Competition Directorate-General, indicating that it had received complaints from Infineon and Hynix.
Rambus says it filed its response to the complaint in October 2003 and has not heard from the EU on this matter since that date.
Infineon clearly sees a possibility of changes in circumstances surrounding the patents. In its settlement agreement it said that after November 2007, it will make additional quarterly payments up to $100m only if Rambus enters into additional specified licensing agreements with certain other DRAM manufacturers.
