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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.

42 of 149 comments (clear)

  1. Enron and Arthur Andersen by fembots · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I think after Enron and Arthur Andersen, if you touched the documents you're gone.

    1. Re:Enron and Arthur Andersen by mboverload · · Score: 2, Informative

      Destroyed documents? Ha! Enron was making freaking snow with its documents, I didn't see any charges against them.

    2. Re:Enron and Arthur Andersen by miu · · Score: 4, Interesting

      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.]
    3. Re:Enron and Arthur Andersen by dpilot · · Score: 4, Interesting

      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.
    4. Re:Enron and Arthur Andersen by glrotate · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Lea Fastow, who is actually just 2 blocks down the street from me in the Federal equivalent of county jail, is also serving a sentence for lying. In her case lying on her taxes.

      What would you charge Ken Lay with? How do you prove that Ken Lay or Jeff Skilling engaged in fraud when both their accountants, Aurthur Anderson, and their attorneys, Vinson & Elkins, said the deals were legit?

      It's one thing to say they were poor managers and didn't understand the businesses they were running, but to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they what they did was illegal is a slightly higher hurdle.

  2. First Post... by LuYu · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It is about damn time that Rambus got punished for this. They have been deceiving the court since the beginning. They also lied about pending patents. They should have all of their patents (even the ones unrelated to this case) revoked as punishment for their abuse of the patent system.

    --
    All data is speech. All speech is Free.
    1. Re:First Post... by virgil_attack · · Score: 4, Funny

      I'm sure we all are. Since this is Slashdot however I find no need to back up my wild claims with solid facts.

    2. Re:First Post... by TheWanderingHermit · · Score: 5, Interesting

      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.

  3. in addition by em0te · · Score: 2, Interesting

    yeah, they shred documents only when litligation is brought about...but it's all just coincidence. so none of it should be taken into consideration.

    1. Re:in addition by ravenspear · · Score: 4, Interesting

      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.

    2. Re:in addition by ravenspear · · Score: 2, Informative

      I mean, wouldn't the knowledge they shredded documents be about the worst thing possible for them in a countersuit?

      Not if the documents contained more incriminating evidence. It's certainly a indicator of duplicity but you can't convict someone based on the hearsay of "I think this is what was in those documents."

  4. Rambus rhombus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    well well, rambus is so not square?

  5. I Guess I Should Say It... by teddy9876 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Chip's Ahoy !!

  6. In other news... Rambus faces patent infringement by AthenianGadfly · · Score: 5, Funny

    Rambus faces a patent infringement suite from SCO for using their business model and becoming the "SCO(tm) of the chip world"

  7. Legal Section by nacturation · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.
    1. Re:Legal Section by Duncan3 · · Score: 4, Funny

      I'm sure that's on their list right under "stop posting dupes"

      --
      - Adam L. Beberg - The Cosm Project - http://www.mithral.com/
    2. Re:Legal Section by Neophytus · · Score: 3, Insightful

      And rename YRO into just YR, because it's clear that general rights issues do have a place here.

    3. Re:Legal Section by Spy+Hunter · · Score: 2, Funny

      And get some better colors too, as long as we're dreaming that the Slashdot editors actually care what our opinions are.

      --
      main(c,r){for(r=32;r;) printf(++c>31?c=!r--,"\n":c<r?" ":~c&r?" `":" #");}
    4. Re:Legal Section by ravenspear · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Actually I doubt that's on the list at all. Taco has said that he doesn't really care that much about the dupe thing and he thinks people who constantly complain about dupes are dumb.

    5. Re:Legal Section by capt.Hij · · Score: 2, Informative

      Judging from all the links on slashdot to groklaw I just assumed that groklaw is the legal section. Groklaw usually has the legal stories first with better commentary from a person who has a pretty good idea of the law. (Not that that ever mattered on slashdot...)

    6. Re:Legal Section by Alomex · · Score: 3, Funny

      Ahh, the Unix philosophy: it's the users' fault.

      Is the story duplicated? It's the users' fault.

      Can't edit a story to correct a typo? It's the users' fault.

      Can't understand arcane command syntax? It's the users' fault.

  8. Appeal by alset_tech · · Score: 3, Interesting

    You would think that when a company destroys evidence they lose the right to appeal. These are the times in which we live.

    --
    Standing on the shoulders of giants.
    1. Re:Appeal by Keeper · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You are assuming that they did destroy evidence. If you lost the right to appeal a decision based on findings in that decision, you'd end up with a catch-22 type situation that could be abused.

      They'll get their appeal. If the appelete court finds nothing wrong with the lower courts decision, they'll lose. If the lower court erred, they'll get a do-over, and they'll win or lose on the merits.

  9. Re:SCO of the chip world by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    To be fair, it's really an unfair comparison.

    SCO is a IP litigation company which purchased a company with many valuable copyrights (IE: Code) to sue others into oblivion.

    Rambus is a technically adept company with many valuable patented technologies, which squandered what advantages they had by trying to lock everybody into their tech and sueing anybody who competed...

  10. Litigation by DenDave · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I think that consumers who own systems with rambus rimms should file a class action suit for damages incurred due to non-upgradability.. I have a buddy with Dell Systems stuck with 128 mb of ram 'cuz local vendors (dell included) no longer ship rimms...

    Sue the Fockers...

    --
    -if at first you don't succeed, stay the heck away from paragliding.
    1. Re:Litigation by Associate · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Buyer beware.
      I can't sue IBM because they soldered the procs into their early mother boards.

      --
      Someone hates these cans.
    2. Re:Litigation by Detritus · · Score: 2, Informative
      Are your friends too lazy to use google to search for vendors?

      I've bought them from http://memorysuppliers.com in the past. They're available. They work. You might not like the price when compared to more mainstream products, but those are the breaks.

      --
      Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
    3. Re:Litigation by SkankhodBeeblebrox · · Score: 2, Informative

      No offense, but you, sir, are a moron.

      I am a proud owner of an Asus P4T-E (with an i850 chipset), w/ 1gb of PC800 RDRAM memory. I specifically chose RDRAM when I built the machine back in 2001, because the only other choice at the time was DDR-200/266 w/ the original i845 chipset, or PC133 w/ the same chipset. (if you recall, performance of the original i845 was less than spectactular)

      All of my friends questioned my choice of RDRAM when building my system, saying I wouldn't be able to overclock (which i was, easily, P4 1.6a @ 2.3ghz w.o. any fantastic cooling solutions) and that I wouldn't be able to use that same memory when I upgraded (I haven't upgraded yet, but many of them have, and guess what? They purchased new 'go faster' DDR sticks when they bought their new board/cpu...)

      As for your buddy being stuck w/ 128mb of RDRAM because of no local availability... Have you heard of this website called 'eBay'?? I hear it's quite nifty.

      Oh, by the way... Dell still sells RDRAM

    4. Re:Litigation by DenDave · · Score: 2, Funny

      LOL
      What starts out a sarcastic jest turns into a flame war..
      Actually in some countries rimms are extremely hard to come by and they are disproportionatly expensive.
      C'mon, folks, rimms suck ass (ROFL) and so does the consortium who frauded on them!
      And yep, I am sure you could get a rimm on ebay.. if it hadn't been for ebay banning services you could probably get a rimm job..LOL!! Oh oh.. this is going awry .. next AC post will probably tell us who this has to do with a man and his goat.. ROFL!! LMAO!!

      --
      -if at first you don't succeed, stay the heck away from paragliding.
  11. Priceless? by PornMaster · · Score: 3, Funny

    512MB R-DRAM RIMM - $120
    Legal fees to enforce your patent - $350000
    Being left out in the cold and compared to SCO - Priceless.

  12. Oh no! by null+etc. · · Score: 4, Funny
    "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.

    Man, I really hope they win the appeal. I'd hate to see them lose their ability to innovate.

  13. Re:SCO of the chip world by Tuqui · · Score: 2

    Come on, Nobody hates Rambus that much.

  14. Ram busted by harvey+the+nerd · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's about time. The courts need to begin to seriously sanction deceiptful and fraudulent behavior, otherwise, Chaos. This is a minimal sanction. Surely the judge recognized the previous fraud conviction, tossed but..., as well as clear document destruction makes this a no brainer. At all levels - Court of Appeals, Supremes, GWB, Congress - I think Rambus' credibility is SCO'd. Busted Rambus! Stick to your own inventions next time please.

    1. Re:Ram busted by forgetful_ca · · Score: 2

      Well, they *really* did invent the technology that they're protesting about. The trouble is, iirc, that they hoodwinked the rest of the industry into copying it just far enough before they split the consortium. (And commenced suing.)

      I wonder just how much money is involved. Other ram makers just caved in and started paying the royalties. Infinium didn't, but must maintain this ad nauseum court action. I wonder who's further ahead?

  15. OT: CmdrPot, meet kettle by Platinum+Dragon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    he thinks people who constantly complain about dupes are dumb.

    Oh really?

    I think dupes, especially ones posted within the space of a day, are an indication that the editors are not even reading their own site. There have been numerous recent examples of editors failing to check for working links and at least ensuring a hint of accuracy in submission text, along with proper attribution, before posting. If they're going to take the time to post something on a page viewed by millions, they can take a few extra minutes to make sure it isn't crap, or posted two hours earlier and three items down the page. Otherwise, wtf are they doing all day?

    Really, if the editors/authors can't live up to their self-granted titles, and can't give the viewing community--which is helping pay for the site either through ad views or subscriptions--a greater degree of oversight that they won't do themselves, I see no reason to ever subscribe. As it is, I'm pretty close to mapping slashdot.org to 127.0.0.1 in my hosts file and staying away for a while.

    --

    Someday, you're going to die. Get over it.
    1. Re:OT: CmdrPot, meet kettle by Speare · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I think it would be more appropriate to send your comments to CmdrTaco's bosses. It reflects poorly on all of the OSTG sites, to allow it to be run with such a cavalier attitude toward fairness, accuracy, and craftsmanship. CmdrTaco may have started the site as a "whatever I want" blog, but now it's got a life of its own, a responsibility to the community, and he's got a boss to whom he answers.

      --
      [ .sig file not found ]
  16. Re:SCO of the chip world by FuzzyBad-Mofo · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Rambus basically sat in on industry meetings, then pre-emptively patented the technologies which were under proposal. Their methods were no more than extortion toward companies which implemented the (supposedly open) standards the industry had agreed upon. As far as I know Rambus doesn't actually employ many (any?) engineers, they are primarily in business to make money from "intellectual property."

  17. Damn by dilby · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'd be scared if I was the judge...Oh wait sorry Rambus not Rambo's. Silly me.

    --
    This post patent pending.
  18. Re:SCO of the chip world by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

  19. Re:SCO of the chip world by squiggleslash · · Score: 5, Informative
    Nope. That company, today, is called Tarantella. The company called SCO today used to be called Caldera. They owned SCO for a few years at a time when SCO's core Unix business was failing, and had the SCO part of the business concentrate on their Tarantella administration suite. SCO was then spun off, renamed to Tarantella, with only the Unix IP "assets" and the SCO name kept by Caldera.

    Caldera was previously best known for buying Novell/Digital Research's anti-trust lawsuit against Microsoft for the numerous abuses Microsoft made against DRDOS. Once Caldera won that one, they spun off what was left of the DRDOS development team in the form of Lineo.

    It's fair to say they are, for the most part, an IP litigation company. They've had some good people (good in the sense of not evil) people running them for the times they've been Caldera + Some Company With Something Real For Sale, but they keep returning to a theme, spinning off the companies that do the real work and keeping the lawsuit material.

    --
    You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
  20. Re:Slightly offtopic.... by lokedhs · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It is pretty much standard practice in high-profile cases, which is why you notice them all the time. However, crimes such as speeding and rarely appealed. But then again, they don't end up on the front page of slashdot either.

  21. Re:In other news... Rambus faces patent infringeme by sconeu · · Score: 3, Funny

    I think Rambus has the prior art.

    --
    General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.