Brussels, 16/06/2009 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 12 June, the European Commission launched a consultation on the measures put forward by the US electronic chip designer, Rambus. This company has proposed putting a cap on the royalty rates for the five year duration during which manufacturers pay Rambus for using its technology. These measures appear to have satisfied the concerns the Commission had with regard to the company's possible abuse of dominant market position by controlling the majority of JEDEC-compliant memory chip patents. In July 2007, the European Commission adopted a Statement of Objections against Rambus, for possible infringement of Article 82 of the EC Treaty (anti-trust), by participating in JEDEC. This organisation established technical standards for manufacturing its “Dynamic Random Access Memory” chips (DRAMs). These components are used to temporarily store data in certain products, such as personal computers. Rambus also took part in the negotiations and elaboration of standards as a JEDEC member but failed to indicate that it controlled a large number of patents for the technology in question. In a press release last Friday, the Commission described this omission as tantamount to dishonesty within the framework of the standardisation process. JEDEC-compliant DRAMs represent around 95% of the information communication market, a percentage of which Rambus currently demands in royalties for using its technology.
The European Commission began proceedings against the company in the US but the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) investigation was abandoned due to lack of proof. The Commission's investigation, however, has led Rambus to propose a number of measures to put a cap on its royalties earned from this market. These royalties will be between 1.5% - 2.65%, depending on the kind of technology used, until 2010. The rate will then be set at 1% and 2% until June 2014.
"With this proposed resolution, we create a new platform where all parties can move forward by licensing our patented innovations for future use in their products rather than engaging in costly litigation," said Thomas Lavelle, the senior vice president and general counsel at Rambus.
The Commission is now calling on stakeholders to present their comments on the company's proposal within the next four weeks. If the Commission approves the measures, following a positive outcome from the consultation, they will become binding under Article 9 § 1 of Regulation 1/2003. The complete text of the proposed measures is available at: (http: //ec.europa.eu/comm/competition/antitrust/cases) (C.D./transl.rh)