Court reverses FTC in Rambus ruling, but patent holders should still use caution with proposals to standard-setting organizations

On April 22, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit reversed a decision of the Federal Trade Commission and held that a company’s failure to disclose its patents to a standard-setting organization who was considering adoption of the patented technology did not – by itself – violate antitrust laws. 

Pepper Hamilton’s Antitrust and Competition Practice Group recently published a summary of the opinion in Rambus Inc. v. Federal Trade Commission, and they note that “Rambus does not give companies carte blanche to lobby SSOs for adoption of patented technologies without fully disclosing their rights to such technologies.”  To read the complete summary from Pepper’s attorneys, click here.