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FTC Dismisses Complaint Against Rambus

Posted by timothy on from the endurance-contest dept.

swordboy writes "A federal judge just threw out the FTC lawsuit against Rambus. This has been discussed at length here before but this changes the landscape yet again. An interesting, possibly coincidental item is that Intel just today announced a new and very powerful DRAM interface that bypasses Rambus IP altogether."

8 of 175 comments (clear)

  1. Woo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Now, the question is, does this offer the same price-point as DDR?

    I mean, DDR-II has a significant price-premium over current DDR, but if it doesn't....

    Woo. It might be worth going Intel for once :)

  2. Time is of the essence by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Intel just today announced a new and very powerful DRAM interface that bypasses Rambus IP altogether.

    Unfortunately, most court disputes between hi-tech companies finish long after the technologies in question are dead. Just look at Lineo/Canopy : when they won the DRDOS settlement against Microsoft, Windows 95 and DOS were already just a painful reminder of the past.

    So yes, perhaps it has something to do with the fact that Intel can do without the Rambus IP. However, I doubt it's the real reason, because even when the disputed technologies are obsolete when the court reaches its verdict (or the parties settle), the money from damages or settlement is very real.

    --
    "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
  3. Re:Both news items are exciting by CaptBubba · · Score: 5, Insightful
    I don't think the companies would be so hostile if they had know ahead of time that they would be paying Rambus royalties. I think the issue was more that Rambus slipped their patented process into the design and then, when it was too late to remove it, they told everyone to pay up. I think the manufacturers were rightfully pissed off. This is with SDRAM (and by extension DDR) tech, not RDRAM, which everyone expects Rambus to charge for.

    That said I think it is unsuprizing that Intel and the manufacturers would look somewhere else for the next generation of RAM technologies. They'd be foolish to deal with a companay that had tricked them before.

  4. Re:Both news items are exciting by qtp · · Score: 5, Informative

    Rambus, long an innovator in memory designs has been virtually sued to death by JEDEC members over their IP rights to the RDRAM designs.

    Nice, if it were true. The reason the JEDEC members were sueing was that Rambus was writing down the other companies ideas that were brought up at the JEDEC meetings and having their patent lawyers apply for patents on those ideas the next day. The other companies were not patenting those proposals that they were putting forth at JEDEC while establishing the SDRAM standards, due to a agreement between all members that the SDRAM standard would contain no patent-encumbered technology. When other JEDEC members caught wind of this and complained, RAMBUS left JEDEC, but their patent applications on SDRAM technology continued to change to cover new aspects of the SDRAM spec after each JEDEC meeting! They had a spy (codename: Secret Squirrel) in the meetings who was forwarding the tech to them while the spec was still being determined, and when the spec was published, most of the SDRAM spec was subject to Rambus patents on tech developed by the other members.

    Rambus ripped off the JEDEC members and the courts are saying that this is OK. WTF? All is fair in love, war, and business (I guess).

    --
    Read, L
  5. Re:RAMBUS is so dead by Best+ID+Ever! · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Actually it's more like RAMBUS has *been* dead ever since DDR / DDR2 became competitive in terms of prices.

    I think you mean RDRAM is dead. RAMBUS, the company, is still very much alive thanks to this ruling, which allows them to extort royalties for SDRAM.

  6. Re:Both news items are exciting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Actually, I think you might not be aware of the manner of Rambus' actions. First of all, they're not seeking licensing for the RDRAM designs, but for patents that are infringed upon by the DDR RAM implementation.

    The reason other members of the hardware community are so upset, and the reason that Rambus has been the target of so many lawsuits, is that they were on the design commitee which decided upon the spec. for DDR in the first place, and they presented their technology to the standards working group conveniently without mentioning the fact that they owned patents on the implementation.

    That's why they deserve the title of 'litigious bastards'-- because that's pretty 'bastardly' behavior.

  7. Re:This is an important decision by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Depends on what you mean by "RAM". FRAM and MRAM are rewriteable, random access memory technologies that are also non-volatile. Densities and price points today don't make replacing your current RAM cost effective, but give 'em a chance.

    Hard drives will still be around for bulk storage. Dollars-per-bit counts, too.

  8. Re:Conspiracy, conspiracy by qtp · · Score: 5, Informative

    decide for yourself.

    The point is that you may ammend a patent application after it has been applied for and before the decision has been made. They originally filed applications on a rather generic implementation and adjusted it to fit the spec while JEDEC was still in the process of writing it.

    At least that's what the other members of JEDEC alleged, and RAMBUS, rather than deny it outright, admitted that it was receiving emails (from someone calling themselves "Secret Squirrel") advising them on how to ammend their technology (and their patent applications), but that they did not know who they were from, and did not know that the information was the same as was being discussed at JEDEC.

    --
    Read, L