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05/12/2002 - Updated 09:00 PM ET

Rambus faces antitrust lawsuit

By Jayne O'Donnell, USA TODAY

The Federal Trade Commission is preparing an antitrust lawsuit against once-highflying computer-chip maker Rambus, people familiar with the case say.

The FTC lawsuit would charge that Rambus worked with the computer industry to adopt a memory-chip standard while quietly applying for patent rights to it.

Chipmakers could pay Rambus $1 billion in royalties before the case is won or they figure out how to design around the patent.

FTC officials wouldn't comment.

Rambus general counsel John Danforth says the written rules governing the semiconductor trade group that worked on the standards require companies to disclose approved patents, not pending patents. But John Desmarais, who represents chipmaker Infineon, which won a case against Rambus that is on appeal, says the trade group's manual requires all patent applications to be disclosed.

A few years ago, Rambus was the darling of the tech world because it was reinventing computer memory. Big PC makers continue to sell computers with Rambus' technology and consumers are paying extra to get it because it is faster. Intel's next-generation network processor and Sony PlayStation 2 use Rambus' memory.

The FTC lawsuit would seek to prevent Rambus from collecting royalties on its SDRAM memory and possibly its more advanced DDR memory, according to lawyers familiar with the FTC probe.

Rambus is expected to fight the FTC in court. Danforth would not comment on the company's plans.

Companies often work together to develop industrywide standards for products so that equipment made by different manufacturers can be used interchangeably. For instance, a standard for VHS videotape makes it usable in all VHS videocassette recorders.

The FTC watches for patent violations during this process because competition can be hurt if companies are forced by the standards to use a patented product.

The FTC also is investigating whether energy company Unocal patented clean-fuel formulations while helping draft a standard that oil companies say mandates Unocal's process. Unocal has said its process is not the only way to make gas meeting the standard.

The FTC has closed a probe into whether Sun Microsystems failed to disclose patents while helping draft an industry standard for computer memory modules.