Rambus has agreed to cut royalty rates charged for its DRAM technology as part of "a tentative settlement" of its two-year patent case with the European Commission.
The European Commission originally brought charges against Rambus in August 2007 alleging violation of European Union competition law.
Rambus has agreed to offer 5-year licences with maximum royalty rates of 1.5% for DDR2, DDR3, GDDR3 and GDDR4 SDRAM memory types.
"With this proposed resolution, we create a new platform where all parties can move forward by licensing our patented innovations for future use in their products rather than engaging in costly litigation,” said Thomas Lavelle, senior vice president and general counsel at Rambus.
For those licensees who ship less than 10% of their DRAM products in the older SDR and DDR DRAM types will get a royalty holiday for those older types.
Royalty rates for five-year worldwide licences will be 1.5% per unit for SDR memory controllers until April 2010, then dropping to 1.0%.
Royalty rates of 2.65% per unit for DDR, DDR2, DDR3, GDDR3 and GDDR4 memory controllers through April 2010, then dropping to 2.0%.
The Commission’s investigation followed complaints set forth by certain DRAM manufacturers originating with Rambus’ 1992-1995 participation in an industry standard-setting organisation, the Joint Electron Device Engineering Council (JEDEC).
“We did nothing wrong during our participation in the JEDEC standard-setting organisation, as demonstrated in multiple US court victories including before the D.C. Court of Appeals," said Lavelle.
There is now a consultation period related to the terms of the EC decison.