In a March 1 notice of appeal, posted on the FTC's Web site on Friday, FTC lawyers said they would ask the five-member commission to reverse a Feb. 17 ruling by an administrative law judge and resuscitate charges that Rambus had illegally monopolized key computer chip technologies.

The commission itself voted to authorize the complaint against Rambus in June 2002. If the commission overturned the administrative judge's ruling, any subsequent appeals would be heard by a federal appeals court.

Administrative Judge Stephen McGuire rejected nearly every aspect of the government's case, and concluded it had failed to prove charges the chip development company illegally monopolized key computer chip technologies.

Rambus General Counsel John Danforth said the FTC staff's decision to appeal was no surprise but he expressed confidence the commissioners would uphold the judge's ruling, given the "large number of independent bases for dismissing the complaint."

But it's not unprecedented for the FTC to overturn decisions of its administrative judges.

Less than three months ago, the FTC voted against a ruling by another judge who had dismissed antitrust charges against Schering-Plough Corp. and two other drug companies.

At issue in the Rambus case are computer memory patents with billions of dollars in royalties at stake.

Rambus has patent infringement cases pending against computer chip manufacturers Micron Technology Inc. , South Korea's Hynix Semiconductor Inc. and Germany's Infineon

By: DocMemory
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