Following a three-year antitrust investigation, the Korean Fair Trade Commission has reportedly accused technology company Qualcomm of using unfair patent licensing terms. The Korean Fair Trade Commission (FTC) alleges that the chip designer set "unreasonable and discriminatory terms for licensing its patents". It also says that Qualcomm has broken its commitment to license its patents, where these are included in international standards, on a fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory basis, harming competition and inflating handset prices. The complaints appear to have been initiated by Texas Instruments and Broadcom, plus private Korean firms Nextreaming and Thin Multimedia.
Rambus has announced that it has reached a tentative settlement with the European Commission to resolve the pending case against the company. Under the proposed resolution, Rambus will offer licenses with maximum royalty rates for five-year for its dynamic random access memory patents. The Commission would make no finding of liability relative to JEDEC-related charges, and no fine would be assessed against Rambus. The European Commission originally brought charges against Rambus in August 2007 alleging violation of European Union competition law (« patent ambush »). European Commission antitrust procedures stipulate that a final decision must be preceded by a consultation of interested third parties on the terms of the commitments offered.
Rambus inc. announced Thursday, 14 may 2009 that the Federal Trade Commission has dropped its claim that the memory chip company violated antitrust laws in patenting technologies that were eventually incorporated into industry standards. The FTC recently lost before the Supreme Court, ending the possibility of further litigation in the matter. By this decision, the commission's move ends a seven-year battle with Rambus and ended speculation that it might pursue the case against Rambus under different federal regulations.
The judge A William Q Hayes of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California in San Diego has dismissed a request by Broadcom Corp. to declare some of Qualcomm Inc.'s patents on wireless chips "exhausted and unenforceable." Broadcom had sued Qualcomm in October accusing its rival of improperly using its wireless-technology patents to suppress competition. The judge ruled that Broadcom failed to identify the specific patents and called alleged injuries against the company "speculative."
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