In re Dell Computer Corp.
Federal Trade Commission
121 F.T.C. 616 (1996)
- Written by Sean Carroll, JD
Facts
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) (plaintiff) initiated a complaint against Dell Computer Corporation (Dell) (defendant). The FTC alleged as follows: In 1992, Dell became a member of the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA); around the same time, VESA began designing a standard for a computer bus to transmit information from a computer central processing unit to attached devices such as disk drives; VESA proposed a VL-bus design standard; in 1991, Dell had received a patent for “the mechanical slot configuration used on the motherboard to receive the VL-bus card”; Dell did not disclose this patent to VESA, and a Dell employee certified to VESA that, to the best of his knowledge, VESA’s proposed design did not infringe on any Dell intellectual property; VESA would have chosen a different standard had it known about Dell’s patent; and after the rollout of the VL-bus design standard, Dell claimed to various computer manufacturers that they were violating Dell’s patent by using the design. The FTC alleged that this conduct unreasonably restrained competition in violation of the Federal Trade Commission Act (FTC Act).
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning ()
Dissent (Azcuenaga, Commissioner)
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