Monday, April 26, 2004
The Federal Trade Commission has released a brief appealing an administrative law judge's decision in February dismissing the agency's antitrust case against Rambus Inc.
The 125-page brief dated April 16 and released on Thursday (April 22) seeks to revive the regulatory portion of the antitrust case by raising several legal issues. One deals with "exclusionary" conduct which can be used to acquire monopoly power in violation of U.S. antitrust laws.
An administrative law judge ruled in February that Rambus acquired monopoly power in a long-running patent dispute, but did not do so by exclusionary means. Hence, Judge Stephen J. McGuire, the FTC's chief administrative law, dismissed the agency's antitrust case.
The second issue involves the Los Altos, Calif., company's involvement in a chip standards group. FTC lawyers argued in their appeal that Rambus' conduct as a member of the standards group "distorted" the standards process, thereby contributing to Rambus' monopoly power.
Antitrust experts said the appeal raises several novel issues of law, but according to one, "it's [the appeal] a stretch."
By: DocMemory
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