FTC Judges Dismisses Antitrust Suit Against Rambus

By Joel R. Grosberg and Raymond A. Jacobsen Jr.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) last week dismissed the FTC’s complaint against Rambus alleging that Rambus had engaged in anti-competitive behavior for its conduct in a standard-setting process. This decision is a major defeat for the FTC, which has made a concerted effort recently to establish an independent antitrust violation for improper conduct during standard-setting activities. Although the FTC is likely to appeal this decision to the full Commission, the ALJ’s decision rejected almost all of the arguments the FTC made at trial. The ALJ said the FTC "failed to sustain its burden" of proving Rambus committed fraud primarily because the ALJ found that the rules of the standard-setting organization were unclear about whether participants had to disclose patents or pending patents that related to the standard. In addition, it is clear that the Federal Circuit’s decision in favor of Rambus