Court Decision Favors Rambus

RoscoeP writes "This story from News.com: "A federal judge has overturned two counts of fraud against chip designer Rambus...". At least Rambus can't pursue litigation against Infineon for SDRAM though." See our previous stories about Rambus for far-too-much background.

Comments

Re:One word

[_newwave_]

It's nice to see a judge standing up against large companies, to stop them from throwing lawsuits around against smaller companies

I'm not positive...but I believe Infineon is a larger company than Rambus.

More Information

[robbyjo]

Check out The Inquirer for more information. They said the court makes no difference to the patent infringement case.

Re:Greater than, less than

[Mhrmnhrm]

The two fees being referred to are different. The 'legal fees' aspect is akin to being forced to pay to replace the signs you vandalized as a kid. Continuing the example, 'punitive damages' would be having to perform community service after you've paid to replace the signs. It's like telling a company to go sit in the corner (Without the massive headaches of an AT&T breakup)

Typically, punitive damages are greater than legal fees (Think McDonald's being forced to pay $5M for serving hot coffee), but in very high profile/technical cases like this, this kind of reversal isn't that uncommon.

Spin from both sides..

[ackthpt]

But the crux, as I undestand it, is that Infineon wanted Rambus' complaints against them brought to an end, while Rambus' ability to pursue Micron and Hynix to continue. Micron and Hynix are competitors after all, and for the benefit of those who haven't followed, they haven't worked together, just toward a common goal. So, in the spirit of winning, but not helping your allies, Infineon wishes to step away from the battlelines and sell memory, unfettered, while Micron and Hynix continue to soldier onward.

All in all, it's still a really bad thing for Rambus, as they've got to be running so low on revenues, from slumping sales in the IT market, that they should be considering out of court settlement with the manufacturers. Although such a concession might be too late.

Yet there's still the matter of Rambus vs Infineon in a german court, where a technology expert was appointed recently, and the italian procedings which looked like a win for Rambus, but the judge put on hold. Wait and see.

Link to Rambus v Infineon Docket

[myst564]

Here's a link to the actual docket http://www.rambusite.com/RambusVsInfineon/Docket.h tm .

It probably would be nice to have someone comment on what was exactly denied in the ruling.

Only one fraud count overturned.

[kindbud]

According to the story at CBS Marketwatch, only one count of fraud was overturned, the one relating to DDR. The fraud conviction still stands with regards to SDRAM.

On Thursday, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia cleared Rambus of fraud charges related to DDR. However, it maintained that Rambus had committed fraud with respect to SDRAM, Wiseman said.

"The court affirmed Infineon's broad theory, and found that Rambus did intentionally defraud JEDEC in respect to SDRAM standardization," said attorney John Desmarais of Kirkland & Ellis, the New York law firm representing Infineon.

Rambus plans to file an appeal on the SDRAM decision in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

Re:Quick look at PriceWatch

[Chris Burke]

Don't forget:
256MB PC2100 Micron DDR - $36
512MB PC2100 Micron DDR - $189

The 512MB sticks are still expensive (only 1/2 of RDRAM), but still a much better value. With SDRAM and DDR chipsets appearing for P4 soon, Rambus' days are numbered.