Preliminary Ruling Limits Scope of Rambus Patents

Tackhead writes "According to this article in Electronic News, Rambus - our favorite litiga, uh, innovators in DRAM technology - has been smacked with a preliminary ruling that limits their patent claims to RAM technologies involving a multiplex bus. The article goes on to quote a source who says that since neither SDRAM nor DDR use this technique, this ruling could lead to the invalidation of RAMBUS' patent claims on SDRAM and DDR. Of course, this is just a preliminary ruling, and it's only one court battle (out of at least three), but it looks like the Good Guys (well, at the guys whose business is based on making chips instead of suing chipmakers) just might be winning."

Comments

RAMBUS Stock

[kreyg]

Their stock declined 26% today.

Hehe. Ouch.

Re:competition underway...

[Tackhead]

> Well, even if RAMBUS loses this case altogether, there is still the competition between DDR and RDRAM. Who will win this battle is completely unknown.

Yup. RDRAM is pretty clearly a Rambus innovation, and I don't begrudge them their royalties on RDRAM sales.

There's nothing intrinsically evil about saying "we invent things and license the tech to people who want to build them". It's only when Rambus said "Oh yeah, all your RAM are belong to us!" that I think they crossed the line from being innovators into being litigators.

If you invent something, you can license it. My beef with Rambus is that I don't believe they had anything to do with the "invention" of SDRAM or DDR, and that they therefore have no legitimate claim to royalties on those products.

If Rambus makes a fortune because Intel ships a CPU/chipset combo that turns the performance potential of RDRAM into real-world advantages, and their technology gains marketshare from DDR, more power to 'em.

But if the world goes with DDR instead of RDRAM, then Rambus (IMHO) should either come up with something better than DDR and patent it, or stick a fork in itself, 'cuz it's done.

Actually ...

[overshoot]

it doesn't quite shut down the Rambus litigation machine. Besides the totally bogus stuff, they do have a patent on variable CAS latency in the DRAM. One could argue that this was obvious, since everyone and her sister was using controller-side variable CAS latency from 'way back when. Regardless, they have the patent and it does seem to bear directly on SDRAM and DDR.

DDR II, on the other hand, has had it designed out. Dang.

i'm stunned...

[Wiggin]

... sanity entering the US court system? isn't that one of the signs of the end of the world?

IMHO

[Auckerman]

It seems there is a new way for a company to earn money and it comes in several forms.

1. Go to standards commities, listen to all the sugestions, and patent them in the hope that one day the suggestions are use. (which is what RAMBUS is alleged to have done by some)

2. Go to a standards commities and suggest your recently filed patent as a standard, in the hope someone will listen and add it to the standard. (which is what MS did with CSS)

In order for standards to be accepted or even used for that matter, there NEEDS to be full disclosure and trust at the comitties. Meaning: No Patents Allowed. Really, the EU, The US, and other interested parties should sign a treaty that agrees on a uniform language to prevent patents from going into or out of a conference. That and the definition of "non-trival" when applied to a patent should mean more than "something a high school grad wouldn't understand". Sure, I don't understand RAM design, but there are those who KNOW what non-trivial is and it seems RAMBUS has patented a non-trivial technology.

Criminal-Fraud Claims, rumor, innuendo, etc.

[ackthpt]

On a related matter Crime-Fraud allegations have been included, in consideration of Rambus JEDEC participation. The question of Who knew What, When and Why they didn't disclose their patent applications while the body was working on an Open SDRAM standard.

And of course, The Register's take on the SDRAM/DDR SDRAM.

Assuming this whole thing blows up in Rambus' face, this would end the SDRAM subsidy of RDRAM, which you can expect to see suffer an awful fate. Makes you wonder what Intel is thinking at this moment, with it's finger stuck in the door jamb.

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