Litigious Rambus Wins Again

After Rambus's settlement deal with Samsung earlier this week, an anonymous reader writes with this snippet: "Memory technology company Rambus rounded out the week with another legal dispute ending in its favor as it fights to defend its patent portfolio. On Friday [the] US International Trade Commission ruled that graphics chip maker Nvidia infringed upon Rambus patents, according to statements released by the two companies on Friday. Rambus has been filing lawsuits against various technology companies for the past decade, claiming they violate patents held by the memory chip designer."

Comments

A patent troll with a win streak?

[LostCluster]

This one's a tough call... the have been one of the most litigious of the tech companies, but on the other hand they seem to keep winning in the courts. Doesn't the definition of a patent troll include suing people with nonsense lawsuits? They seem to have come up with some ideas so critical to memory that everyone else in the industry can't seem to make a product without tripping over the patent law. Do we praise the inventors, or hate them because we hate patents?

Re:A patent troll with a win streak?

[jmv]

The term patent troll has nothing to do with the fact that a company wins or loses. It's used to describe a company whose sole (or main) source of income is patent litigation.

Re:A patent troll with a win streak?

[bky1701]

When an idea is so critical to something it cannot be worked around, it is far too obvious to be deserving of a patent. As a problem gets bigger, the amount of ways to solve it grows proportionally. If memory makers can't get around them, there is no doubt in my mind they're nothing but patent trolling scum who deserve to be beaten down in court.

Re:A patent troll with a win streak?

[DrMrLordX]

RAMBUS, Inc. is the very definition of a patent troll. They're just smarter, and more brazen, than most. It will take years to undo the damage they did to JEDEC memory standards, and by then, who knows how else they will infect memory standards with their patents?

Re:A patent troll with a win streak?

[Zero__Kelvin]

"When an idea is so critical to something it cannot be worked around, it is far too obvious to be deserving of a patent."

So if I invent a Time Machine, and nobody else can find another way to travel through time so they use my design, then my solution was obvious and I am a patent troll for enforcing my patent?

Re:A patent troll with a win streak?

[introspekt.i]

I think the true Patent Troll is the company who neither innovates or manufactures (acts) on its patents. nVidia innovates with an intent to licenses, which I think most people can agree, doesn't really constitute patent troll behavior...they just want to concentrate on innovation.

Re:A patent troll with a win streak?

[timmarhy]

you don't seem to understand the difference between a patent and a chip design. not only that nvidia write the drivers and do the marketing. they PRODUCE something of value. rambus does not.

Re:A patent troll with a win streak?

[Anonymous Coward]

What?? My god, you must be a retard or a patent troll.

Rambus makes a patent. A patent is not a design of anything. Get ANY of the Rambus patents and build something with it? OK? Failed already?

nVidia on the other hand makes actual chip designs. Actual blueprints. Solutions to specific problems, no general handwaving. They are the actual engineers that solve real problems. Then they *sell* the actual chips..

What is next? You are going to compare Intel to Rambus and that Intel doesn't make anything either?

Re:A patent troll with a win streak?

[LostCluster]

Patents by definition stifle competition. They're saying "I figured out how to do something this way, and because I'm first you can't copy me!" It's a monopoly on that idea granted because if everybody could duplicate it right away, nobody would make money inventing.

Just to clarify....

[John Hasler]

...The US Trade Commission is not a court.

Geek Logic

[westlake]

When an idea is so critical to something it cannot be worked around, it is far too obvious to be deserving of a patent.

That's nonsense.

If there is no work-around you have pretty much proven that the solution to the problem is not obvious and that the patent is legitimate.

Re:Geek Logic

[Chris Burke]

What they patented were ways to make fast memory, cheaper.

Nothing about Rambus' technology was every about "cheaper". Their memory technology was inherently more expensive than others because it required additional serialization logic chips.

It's pretty easy to say "Why didn't I think of that?" after the fact. It is the one who gets there first that gets the patent. That IS innovation.

You mean the one who gets to the patent office first? "Why didn't I think of that?" is what Rambus said when they overheard the discussions at JEDEC, but then they realized it didn't matter that they didn't think of it first, since nobody else thought of patenting it first. Yay Rambus?

Re:Geek Logic

[the_other_chewey]

Take flight. There are two ways to do it - be lighter than air,

Airship.

or equal your weight with thrust.

Rocket.

Unless we find some way to modify gravity, that's it.

Right. Wouldn't it be awesome if it were somehow possible to use the dynamic properties of the medium
you move through to generate some sort of supporting force? That might even make it possible to create flying
machines with less thrust than their mass. Woohoo, let me patent that immediately!
Huh? What do you mean, airplanes?

Tard Logic

[Chris Burke]

In what universe is it true that there being only one known way to solve a particular problem means that one solution is not obvious?

In fact, when everyone who approaches the problem arrives at the same solution, that's usually proof that the solution is obvious.

Re:Tard Logic

[zippthorne]

What if everyone who approaches a problem doesn't arrive at a solution, and instead just uses the already known solution?

Re:Tard Logic

[Chris Burke]

That's different obviously.

But usually, if the solution isn't in textbooks, widely published research papers, or discussed at symposiums, but only dislosed via the patent then it isn't widely known. I mean, the patent lawyer at my company explicitly told my whole group not to do patent searches and just come up with solutions on our own, because patents are such a minefield the odds of you infringing one no matter what is very high, and knowingly doing so (which any kind of patent search, even if it didn't turn up the relevant one, could imply) is treble damages. Ergo most engineers are not working from the known-via-patent-disclosure solution, but coming up with it on their own. And if they're all coming up with the same one, then guess what? It was probably an obvious solution.

Memory technology company?

[Hurricane78]

I always thought, Rambus was a law firm with a straw business in memory technology.

Re:Not a troll

[Anonymous Coward]

They *were* a legitimate technology company. Building their undisclosed patents into a JEDEC standard makes them a troll. Not starting litigation until well after the standard had become widely adopted makes them a super-troll.