Slashdot Mirror
Rambus Patent Claims Dismissed
Gogo Dodo writes "The patent infringement claim by Rambus, the SCO of the chip world, against Infineon have been dismissed by a judge in Virginia due to Rambus destroying documents relating to the lawsuit." Of course, Rambus is already planning an appeal, so this may not be over just yet.
The stupid thing is, litigation was not "brought about." They brought the damn litigation! I guess they just didn't realize how stupid their claims were until the ridiculousness of it all became apparant in court. Then they probably shredded the documents to cover their ass, avoid countersuits, etc.
I, for one, think it's about time the slash overlords created a Legal section. This really doesn't have anything to do with online rights. Similar to the Politics section, a Legal section would hold stories like these, SCO's machinations, and any other article where it's two companies duking it out in court and where my rights aren't affected.
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
Of course there are some benefits to being old frat buddies with the president aside from fond memories of keggers and coke.
[Set Cain on fire and steal his lute.]
First, it's about time. I worked as a videographer in 2000-2001, and taped MANY Rambus/Infineon depositions. I was glad to be in the know about what was going on, but after a while it got quite boring -- except in situations where a lawyer was questioning an expert. I remember one time an Infineon lawyer was questioning a Rambus hired expert and asked him what a flip-flop was. He answered a switch, then the lawyer asked him if it could be used as memory, and the expert (rightly, if you remember your electronics) said in some situations. After an hour, the lawyer still wasn't clear on what a flip-flop was, but the expert had answered every question accurately!
It was pretty clear, from the beginning (I think one deposition I had to do one Saturday morning was the first in the case), that Rambus was trying to pull a fast one, but all the technicalities let them keep doing it. Unfortunately, the Infineon lawyers were, almost every single one, rude, pompous jerks that reminded me of Commandant Klink swaggering around like they were important and the Rambus lawyers are calm, polite, and great to work for. It was a shame to see the nice guys on the side I hoped would lose.
Martha Stewart gets out of prison today, and starts her house arrest.
and AFAIK, there's only been one Enron defendent that has actually gone to prison - two if you count that the courts were going to let the man and his wife (names forgotten) server their terms serially, so the other could keep the home with the kids.
Good to know that justice was swift with a $60k problem that really affected no third parties, and nice and slow (slow as in never?) on a multi-billion dollar problem that bilked thousands out of their retirements and/or life savings. IMHO the noise against Martha last year was a sideshow to divert us from Enron. Last I heard, Ken Lay was putting together a web site to tell "his side of the story."
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
I have to post anonymously, because I actually KNOW something about this. I was a Rambus licensee, and did a Rambus-based design. I have been to Rambus headquarters. I also know people who were at the JEDEC meetings at the time in question.
IMHO, your first two sentences are absolutely true. The third is/was false.
At the time I dealt with Rambus, they had competent engineers and really did have some decent IP. When I was there, I saw a 50-50 mix of engineers and managers, but on my way through the building saw a decent number of CAD-equipped cubicles.
IMHO, all the litigation is based on what WAS a decent patent application. They just extended it and drew claims on it that they had no business doing.