Technology News
Tue, 29 Aug 2000, 12:56am EDT
Micron Technology Accuses Rambus of Violating Antitrust Laws
By Daniel Taub
Boise, Idaho, Aug. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Micron Technology Inc., the No. 3 computer memory-chip maker, sued Rambus Inc., claiming the semiconductor-design company violated antitrust laws and holds invalid patents.
In the suit, filed today in U.S. District Court in Delaware, Micron said Rambus ``has engaged in illegal and anti-competitive acts'' to maintain control of the market for synchronous dynamic random access memory, or synchronous DRAMs, which Micron claims is an open industry standard.
``Rambus subverted the open standards process so that it could gain monopoly control over the synchronous DRAM technology and the synchronous DRAM markets,'' the suit alleges.
A Rambus design up until last month had No. 1 chipmaker Intel Corp.'s endorsement as the main standard for memory chips in personal computers. The high cost of manufacturing such semiconductors, however, has resulted in memory-chip makers instead producing alternatives such as synchronous DRAMs.
Micron alleges that Mountain View, California-based Rambus failed to inform a semiconductor industry association, JEDEC, that it was applying for certain computer-memory patents covering synchronous DRAMs. All members of the group agreed to share such information, the suit says.
During the last two months, Rambus has filed suit against memory-chip makers including Infineon Technologies AG, Oki Electric Industry Co., Toshiba Corp. and Hitachi Ltd. for violating patents it claims to hold on non-Rambus-standard memory designs including synchronous DRAMs.
In some of the agreements reached with these companies, royalties for non-Rambus standards have been higher than those for the Rambus memory standard.
Infineon, the memory-chip maker that Rambus sued most recently for patent violations, has not reached any settlement with Rambus.
Rambus representatives couldn't be reached immediately for comment.
Boise, Idaho-based Micron is asking the court to declare that Rambus broke federal antitrust laws and to stop Rambus from enforcing certain computer-memory patents. Micron also is seeking compensatory and punitive damages.
Micron shares rose 5/16 to 89 5/16 today on the New York Stock Exchange. Rambus shares fell 2 1/8 to 84. |
