Rambus Inc. (NASDAQ:RMBS) today confirmed that the European
Commission has issued a Statement of Objections against the Company
alleging violations of European Union competition law. The Statement
of Objections follows complaints set forth by certain DRAM
manufacturers originating with Rambus' 1992-1995 participation in an
industry standard-setting organization, the Joint Electron Device
Engineering Council ("JEDEC").
"The issues raised by the European Commission include Rambus'
participation in JEDEC that ended over a decade ago," said Thomas
Lavelle, senior vice president and general counsel at Rambus. "These
are largely the same issues examined by a number of US courts, the
Federal Trade Commission, and currently before the US Court of Appeals
for the District of Columbia Circuit. We are studying the Statement of
Objections and plan to respond in due course."
A Statement of Objections is a procedural step in the European
Commission's antitrust investigation, in which the Commission
communicates its preliminary view with respect to a possible
infringement of European Union competition law. The European
Commission will review responses to the Statement of Objections in
order to determine whether to issue a final Decision. Any Decision
would be subject to appeal to both the European Court of First
Instance and the European Court of Justice.
The Company will present its response to the Commission's
Statement of Objections over the next several months.
Rambus first filed a patent application for its revolutionary
memory technology in 1990 and proceeded to teach the industry how to
apply that technology, subject to nondisclosure agreements. By
invitation, Rambus later joined a JEDEC committee that was developing
a DRAM standard. Today, Rambus' industry-leading memory architecture
solutions can be found in dozens of products including personal
computers, servers, workstations, video game consoles, high-definition
TVs, set-top boxes, and networking routers and switches.
About Rambus Inc.
Rambus is one of the world's premier technology licensing
companies specializing in the invention and design of high-speed chip
architectures. Additional information is available at www.rambus.com.
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