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Sun probed by FTC
'What's yours is mine, and what's mine is mine...'

By Julian Goldsmith

Published: Monday 10 September 2001

The US Federal Trade Commission is investigating a number of companies, including Sun Microsystems to find out whether they hid crucial patents while helping form industry standards.

The FTC is stepping up its interest in the formation of standards as it is a process which could be vulnerable to anti-competitive practices.

According to US newspaper USA Today the FTC is investigating the possibility that Sun failed to disclose the possession of relevant patents when helping to draft a standard for computer memory modules and then after the standard was ratified, demanded royalties from rivals.

Also under investigation are memory chip specialist Rambus and an energy company, Unocal.