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Samsung Settles With Rambus In Patent Dispute

Posted by kdawson on from the bleak-chip-house dept.

Tackhead writes "After almost a decade of legal wrangling, Samsung has settled with Rambus over the antitrust case, regarding allegations of price-fixing for DDR and SDRAM memory, that was scheduled to proceed this month. (Here is a half-decade-old summary of the twists and turns of the case.) As part of the settlement, Samsung agrees to purchase $200M in Rambus stock, pays $200M in cash to Rambus, plus $25M per quarter for the next 5 years in licensing fees. No immediate word on the implications for Micron or Hynix."

6 of 71 comments (clear)

  1. Missing a detail by girlintraining · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Hey, where's my check for having to pay for all of this crap in the form of higher memory prices? So we have some elephant mating going on between Samsung and Rambus -- that's cool and all, I'm sure it'll be great for... innovation... or... something, but if there is evidence of price fixing then why is the government not asking for the terms of the settlement as proof of conspiracy to defraud and prosecuting? This isn't "self-regulation" of the market -- this is "let's get out of here before mom gets home".

    --
    #fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
    1. Re:Missing a detail by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      I remember how much more RAMBUS cost, maybe the price fixing was in the other direction, in order to drive them into the ground.

      That's precisely what RMBS alleged.

      It's also what the prior AC pointed out: The Feds charged Samsung and settled for $300M, and some Samsung suits went to jail.

      I loathe RMBS's submarine patent and JEDEC fuckery as much as the next guy, but the DRAMurai were no better. When the judge at the current trial said "Yeah, we pretty much have to let the jury know about the $300M in fines and prison time for Samsung execs", Samsung was forced to settle. It was either that, or risk treble-damages for wilful violation of RMBS's patents.

      I'm against those patents, and vehemently against Rambus' attempts to extend the scope of their RDRAM invention to all forms of SDRAM (which I think was ricockulous), and I think they overreached on DDR/DDR2/DDR3 by manipulating the JEDEC committee, but the DRAM makers shot themselves in the foot by trying to price RMBS out of the market in the late 90s.

      A pox on all their houses.

  2. Rambus is still around?? by XanC · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How do we correct this error?

  3. Really? A *Billion Dollars* for Rambus? Fuuuu! by Dr.+Spork · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If you add up Samsung's payout on this deal, it's damn close to a billion US Dollars. Wow, it took some time, but I guess that patent trolling paid off for Rambus after all. They'd never raise that kind of money the old-fashioned way, by making products that people willingly buy.

    1. Re:Really? A *Billion Dollars* for Rambus? Fuuuu! by NeutronCowboy · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Troll? Really? Someone from Rambus must have gotten mod points. As far as I can tell, Rambus just got one billion dollars from litigating a situation that arose because they sat on patents that they knew were going to be infringed by the new standards being developed. And they knew about the new standards being developed because they sat on the standards board. As for their products, they sucked. No one outside of stupidly rich people, or people with very specific needs who were willing to deal with the Rambus memory drawbacks, bought their crap.

      To me, that's the definition of a patent troll: you failed in the market place because you sold an inferior product, but struck gold in litigation based on deceit.

      --
      Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
  4. Re:Insane by AcidPenguin9873 · · Score: 1, Insightful

    The motivation of the patent system is to encourage people to do research and develop products now, today that will benefit the consumer, rather than "at some point later". That the industry was "already headed in the direction of DDR regardless of what rambus did" is just an anecdote about how technology evolves. Rambus made it evolve faster under the assumption that they could get some money by licensing it, but they got nothing (until now). Without the promise of patents and license agreements, maybe Rambus doesn't even bother to take their ideas to production. No other manufacturer has any incentive to move from EDO DRAM to synchronous DRAM, and maybe DDR takes 10 years longer to reach the consumer. This is obviously all hypothetical, of course, but the point is, Rambus made the industry change sooner, rather than later.

    It's called competition, and Rambus was a perfect example of it in action. Then a bunch of greedy corporations ruined it, admitted to doing so, and yet we still have people like you on Slashdot defending them. I don't get it.