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Rambus to Attempt to Collect Royalties on Chipsets

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the you-gotta-be-kidding-me dept.

Datafage writes "According to this article, RAMBUS is going to go after the manufacturers of all chipsets that interface with RAM, including Intel, AMD, Via, and presumably video chipset manufacturers in their relentless pursuit of royalties for their ill-gotten patents. This begs the question: Will they ever stop?"

12 of 112 comments (clear)

  1. Once they tasted blood... by LinuxGeek · · Score: 3

    They just can't stop going after 'royalties' for their patents. It is interesting to see them turn on Intel now. Perhaps Intel will grow tired of their yapping and slap them down once and for good.

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    Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see. - Mark Twain
  2. Something's got to snap... by electricmonk · · Score: 5

    Do I understand this correctly in that they are taking on an entire industry? This is a do-or-die situation for Rambus now. Either they win their lawsuits, own the entire industry, gain legitimacy and generally make their stockholders cream in their pants, or they lose everything and get laughed out of business. Right now, with the state of patent law, it looks like it could go either way, where in reality, it shouldn't really be a question at all.

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    Friends don't let friends use multiple inheritance.
  3. Even more telling is their SEC statement by Brento · · Score: 5

    If you read their latest earnings statement here, you'll notice something even more telling:

    ...no additional licenses for SDRAM-compatible ICs will be signed, that prices of RDRAMs will remain high compared to SDRAMs and that litigation and building costs will exceed the Company's plans.

    They're perfectly aware that nobody else is going to license their chipsets, and they plan on suing anybody and everybody to make money.

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    What's your damage, Heather?
    1. Re:Even more telling is their SEC statement by retep · · Score: 3

      The full statment is:

      This release contains forward-looking statements regarding financial results for future periods. Actual results could differ materially. Among the factors which could cause results to differ materially is the possibility that the Pentium 4 and PlayStation2 ramps will be slower than expected, that shipment of Rambus ICs and other licensed products by Rambus licensees will be below forecast, that no additional licenses for SDRAM-compatible ICs will be signed, that prices of RDRAMs will remain high compared to SDRAMs and that litigation and building costs will exceed the Company?s plans.

      It's just the disclaimer saying what *could* go wrong, not what is likely to go wrong. (though IMO in this case many of those things are quite likely to happen) So at the very least they aren't willing to publicly admit that they're screwed. Who knows, maybe they even believe it themselves. Sometimes people lie often enough that they start to believe their own lies...

  4. RAMBUS must die. by Alcoholist · · Score: 5
    RAMBUS has a seemingly endless supply of vague patents to sue technology companies over. Every time they win a case because of stupid US patent law, they gain the confidence and precedent to continue to come up with bolder schemes to suck even more money from technology companies.

    This is exactly what happens when the staff of a technology company is 50% lawyers. I suspect that this is only the beginning of a era of corporations who produce nothing, design nothing, contribute nothing, but profit from continuous litigiousness, all because of stupid US law and legal practice.

    It's a huge blow to progress in general (RAMBUS RAM is a good example). Someone has to stop this kind of thing before dozens of companies are all trying the same thing, wrecking the technology market because of greed.

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    Bibo Ergo Sum.
    1. Re:RAMBUS must die. by Azog · · Score: 3

      I wonder...

      What if every significant computer hardware company, including Intel, AMD, VIA, NVidia, Micron, IBM, 3Com, Sony, National Semiconductor, etc. etc. simultaneously launched separate lawsuits against RAMBUS?

      "For what cause", you ask? Well, something.... maybe fraud, or deceptive business practicies, or whatever...

      The idea would just be to scare the investors so badly that Rambus's stock price would fall through the floor. Rambus probably has more lawyers then engineers on staff, and fighting a dozen lawsuits, plus all the bad PR they would get would make the company very unattractive to investors.

      Then Intel (or whoever) could buy up all the stock for cheap, shut them down, and give away free licenses to the patents to all the other companies bringing lawsuits to "settle out of court".

      Hey presto, no more RAMBUS problem. The only catch is, this would probably be illegal.


      Torrey Hoffman (Azog)

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      Torrey Hoffman (Azog)
      "HTML needs a rant tag" - Alan Cox
    2. Re:RAMBUS must die. by Chris+Johnson · · Score: 3
      You're assuming that if Intel bought up everything, they would then act any differently from how RAMBUS is acting.

      The problem isn't with one specific corporation. It is a dreadful interaction between a corporation and a legal situation and could happen with any of them, given the initial sleaziness to produce the Intellectual Property at dispute here.

      I could make a case that if Intel owned these patents they would be obligated under fiduciary duty to press them as far as they will go, just like RAMBUS. Perhaps without the desperation (that's from RAMBUS's miserable business case) but with the same basic result.

      Intellectual Property simply doesn't mesh with a fast-paced, innovative industry. This is only the beginning. Assuming that the laws aren't radically revamped- I'd have to recommend nobody attempt to work in the field. The future is like this but more so. The only bright side is- for so many useful things (including Linux) you don't actually _need_ new tech and innovation... you can use old kit and make do. This is quite unglamorous- but it's going to be harder and harder to be on the cutting edge technologically, because of legal challenges- I think it will become impossible for private individuals. That's just my personal opinion.

  5. JEDEC / open standards by DigitalSorceress · · Score: 3

    What really bugs me is the bit about how Rambus participated in open standards meetings and apparently took part in creating those standards without mentioning its patents to anyone... the Conspiracy Monger in me has a new way to get rich:

    1. get the patent on something but be quiet about it
    2. Sit in on an open standards panel, and sprinkle in a few bits and pieces of your patented ideas
    3. Wait until the standard becomes universally accepted and that everyone assumes its safe to use the information because it's a standard
    4. (and this is the twisted bit) Make a shocked public announcement that this standard has used ideas that you have patented and sue everyone in site

    Ahh, I see it all so clearly. now, all I need is a terriffic idea, a patent, enough status to be asked to participate on a standards panel, and a team of lawyers.



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    The Digital Sorceress
  6. Anyone live near these guys? by FFFish · · Score: 3

    Do feel free to take out in the back alley and, ah, solve the Rambus problem for us all, once and for all...

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  7. How did Rambus ever get these patents? by msobkow · · Score: 5
    In 1985/86 my 400 series VLSI design course at university involved leading and trailing clock edge triggers (rising/falling signals.) The use of both edges to effectively double performance was a standard practice, and documented in the textbooks that were printed even earlier.


    The rather extreme efforts of Cray Research to balance signal paths in order to allow increased clock speed without loss of signal coherency was also studied.


    I don't see anything in the Rambus patent descriptions that don't fall back to common design techniques in use over 10 years ago.


    I don't get it. Why isn't Rambus in court on charges of theft or fraud? They claim ownership of design principles that are not only normal practice, but that were created over a decade before their company existed!

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    I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
  8. Late breaking news... by jmv · · Score: 3

    A technology company called "RAMBUS" is claiming to have a patent on DNA. This parent has just been approved by the USPTO.

    The company has set its licensing fee to $1 for each DNA string, but offers a quantity rebate and at $10M per individual. The company CEO has been quoted saying "We will protect our IP and will go after any offender". RAMBUS has already asked for a restraining order against 100 million people and will ask the judge to restrain them from using DNA.

    When asked the reason for its sudden interest in nuclear technology, a RAMBUS official said: "This is in the line of protecting our IP and making people know we're serious about it. Remember, living free is stealing".

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    Opus: the Swiss army knife of audio codec
  9. next they'll go after software... by Barbarian · · Score: 3

    Next they'll go after companies which make Software which use a lot of RAM....

    LINUX companies will get away with $5 per copy sold commercially. Microsoft will have to pay $100 per copy for Windows ME because of the huge memory footprint required to boot.
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