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Rambus Wins Patent Case
Blowfishie writes "Rambus has won a major case they've been fighting since the late 90's. Rambus worked its technology into the standards for SDRAM and DDR data transfer, then waited for the major players (Hynix, Micron and Nanya) to be heavily committed before revealing that it had patents on the technology. 'At issue is whether the developer of a speedy new memory technology deserved to be paid for its inventions, or whether the company misled memory chip makers. "I think they (the jurors) misapprehended what the standards-setting organizations are about and the absolute need for good faith," said Jared Bobrow, an outside attorney for Micron. Wednesday's verdict comes after a judgment against Hynix in 2006 that resulted in a $133 million award to Rambus, Lavelle said, and potentially clears the way for Rambus to collect on that verdict.'"
... oh, you're serious.
Afterwhich Rambus was never trusted in a standards committee again...
For all its faults, Rambus is/was staffed with very smart people who were actively working on memory designs in an effort to create licensable blueprints. They weren't just sitting around grabbing at every obvious idea, but were actually trying to provide a service to hardware vendors.
They totally fucked themselves by becoming a pariah in the standards push, but their technology is real and substantial. Their big problem (aside from the obvious bad choice to torpedo the standards committee) was that they didn't actually produce their own RAM for a long time. This gave the impression that they were just another patent bottom feeder when in actuality they were bringing good technology to the table.
Not quite. First of all, this is a hardware patent. Second, Rambus was an actual technology developer. Turns out that Rambus' competitors did price fixing to prevent Rambus memory tech from entering the market.
Now, I'm not saying the Rambus guys are poor victims, IMO they're as guilty as the other companies, but I'm thinking that Intel and the others might be getting what they deserve. It's as if Rambus told them: you know the rules, and so do I
It's called a submarine patent. They call it that because it lurks there and lets you get all confident before it surfaces and torpedos your business.
Another company did this with .gif, and another with .jpg. In fact I doubt there are many accepted standards that lack these traps. The companies that participate in standards do their best to ensure their patented technologies are included in their standards.
The standards bodies have a term for this. They require not that the standards contain no patented content, but rather that licensing is available under terms that are "RAND": Reasonable and non discriminatory.
There can be no better example than the current hot topic, OOXML. MS has offered their "promise" that they won't sue people for using their specification for non commercial use under certain (unlikely) conditions. They won't even call it a license.
It's all a lie, of course. A corporation does not buy something so expensive as a submarine unless they have a plan to use it.
That's not the same thing as patent troll. A patent troll has no other business than patenting the obvious and suing people who follow the simplest path. While these patents are one clear answer to certain technical problems they are not the only obvious answer. Also, Rambus does have a legitimate business (or did).
Therefore it's not a patent troll, it's a submarine patent. I'll agree that it's despicable though.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
1. Let anticipation build up over April fools. /. community get used to getting regular news.
2. Don't deliver.
3. Let the
4. at about 12 noon... 5. OMGPONIES!!!
6. ???
7. OMGPONIES!!!
The creator of this post (Jacob Smith) hereby releases it, and all of his other posts, into the public domain.