EU Tests Out Its New 'Patent Ambush' Antitrust Law On Rambus

from the patent-ambush-indeed dept

Rambus has been involved in a whole series of lawsuits concerning its patents. If you don't recall, the company has been accused of sitting in on meetings for a standards body and then modifying its patent applications to cover technology included in the standard. Of course, once the patents were granted and the standards were set, Rambus basically went after everyone demanding licensing fees. The case has gone back and forth over the years in courts and in the US Federal Trade Commission -- who ruled that these actions were a violation of antitrust law. Over in Europe, it seems that officials feel that this is the perfect test case for a new kind of antitrust violation: "patent ambush." It's nice to see regulators realizing that abuse of patents should be considered an antitrust violation. Hopefully we'll see more of that going forward. Rambus, of course, claims this is nothing new, but it can't be good for them. In the meantime, as always when we post about Rambus, we wonder how long it will take for the company's stock holders to trash us for daring to question the company. Last time we wrote something negative about the company we got an email saying that "the authorities" had been alerted to our post. We wonder if "the authorities" have been alerted about the awful things European Union regulators are saying about Rambus as well.
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Filed Under: eu, patent ambush, patents, standards
Companies: rambus


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  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 23 Aug 2007 @ 4:09pm

    I hate to compare European (their) vs US (our) laws; but they seem more interested in actual fairness and justice than our government does.

    If you had to characterize our government which phrase is more accurate?

    a - We the people

    b - Follow the money

    Not what our founding fathers had in mind is it?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Evil Mike, 23 Aug 2007 @ 10:53pm

      Re:

      As a country, England is over 1000 years old.
      USA is a tad over 200...

      If we compare the ages of countries to the ages of people; England is an adult in its prime, and USA is hitting its terrible teens.

      Just a thought.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Cixelsid, 24 Aug 2007 @ 1:46am

        Re: Re:

        Meh. Most of those thousand years was dark ages. You know, wallowing in the dirt and eating your own excrement so you can get a good stink going to keep the demons away.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 24 Aug 2007 @ 8:11pm

        Re: compare the ages of countries

        So I guess it would be too much to expect that we learn anything from history and reading actual books. Bahh on us!

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Jo Mamma, 23 Aug 2007 @ 4:34pm

    dude, Mike has a nice house. Good job Mr marketwatch!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Frank, 24 Aug 2007 @ 7:29am

    RFC

    Rambus fan club in 3...

    2...

    1...

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 24 Aug 2007 @ 2:30pm

    ZOMG! how dare you criticize the WONDERFUL company that is RAMBUS!! Patent Ambushing, hah! more like Patent Hugs! Rambus is great and i'm alerting the authorities at the exact same time that i'm writing this post that they need to arrest you for telling the tru, um, i mean, viciously slandering my precious Rambus! zomg!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Any Donkey, 26 Aug 2007 @ 5:23pm

    FTC = political hacks.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    anna miracle, 30 Apr 2008 @ 6:05am

    THE EU & UN OUT OF AMERICA

    AMERICA CAN TAKE CARE OF THEIR OWN BUSINESS WITHOUT THE ROTTEN EU & UN INTERFERING. NO WONDER AMERICA HAS LEFT THE
    CONSTITUTION OUR FOREFATHERS WROTE.
    THE LEADERS WEVE ELECTED TO RUN OUR COUNTRY BUDDIED UP WITH SUCH ORGANIZATIONS AS THE EU AND THE UN WHICH IS MONEY
    AND CONTROL FREEKS.
    WE NEED TO GET RID OF THEM OUT OF OUR GOV.
    THESE PEOPLE HAVE JUST ABOUT DESTROYED AMERICA. IT IS
    JUST WHAT THEY WANTED. CONTROL CONTROL

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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