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Rambus Loses; Vows to Appeal
Fat Rat Bastard writes: "Fresh off of the C-NET new wire comes this news flash "A federal judge in Virginia on Friday threw out the three remaining patent infringement claims brought by memory chip designer Rambus in its case against European chipmaker Infineon." Rambus are vowing to appeal after the last three of 57 patent claims that survived the chop Tuesday were thrown out of court."
. . . Rambus has announced today that it owns all patent rights to the appeal process.
I wonder what happens with the licensing agreements that Samsung and others signed with Rambus. Will they have to continue paying Samsung royalties, even though the patents have been invalidated?
Software sucks. Open Source sucks less.
From the article:
"In our view, if Rambus loses the Infineon case, the stock loses its catalyst," Edelstone wrote in a research note earlier this week.
Does anyone else see way too many things wrong with this quote?
Stocks should be based on a company's business model and diversified revenue stream. Putting your eggs in one basket doesn't create a catalyst, it creates a huge risk. Few computer companies make their money in court, and not only because it is unethical to do so, but because it is also unreliable. Any student of history knows the massive temper tantrums the courts have had in the past century and how often they have affected everything big business.
Who wants to guess at the likelyhood that Mr. Edelstone has Rambus technology in the memory chips of the computer he used to type the research note? In essence, he and other investors are paying Rambus to charge them more for memory, and the money is going around and around in a circle, creating the illusion of profit. This is what bubbles are made of.
I'm not sure about Infineon (anyone with Neon in their name can't be all bad), but I've always used Micron/Crucial RAM, and am very happy with it.
I bought 4GB of RAM from Crucial, 2 Tyan Thunder 2500s, and ordered 4 PIII CuMines. I got the RAM and motherboards in normal time, but the CPUs ended up being back ordered for several months.
After I got the CPUs I found that the RAM that Crucial had listed on their site as being compatible with the board actually didn't work with the board. So I called Crucial about an exchange. Since so much time had passed the first person I talked to didn't know if they could do it. But after they talked to a manager, they said it would be no problem. I got the exchange, and since RAM prices had dropped in the mean time, they gave me some money back.
I have no problem recommended Micron/Crucial to anyone.
I realize that this may seem obvious, be we need to reward Micron & Infineon by purchasing their RAM products. They spent tons of money fighting an unjust cause. The next time I purchase RAM, it will be for one of these two brands
Doh!
What remains is Infineon's RICO charges, and contention that the patents are invalid. All that was decided was that Infineon didn't infringe, or the infringement was less than intentional.
Still up: Hynix (Hyundai) and Micron. Micron should be very interesting.
The vow to appeal is obligatory, in the the dismissed charges, as as it stands, Rambus' position is weakened. A great place to track, day to day is RMBS on Yahoo
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A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar