Rambus, the US chip-design company, has suffered a blow in a patent
infringement case it is bringing against German chip-maker Infineon
Technologies, with the judge throwing out many of its infringement
claims. The share value of Rambus plunged last week in anticipation
of the ruling.
Judge Robert Payne, in the US District Court for the Eastern
District of Virginia, issued a pre-trial ruling that reduced
Rambus’ infringement allegations from 57 to 8 by restricting the
coverage of its four SDRAM and DDR SDRAM technology patents, a move
which could have severe implications for the ability of Rambus to
demand licence fees and royalties from other manufacturers. The
trial has now been postponed until 10th April at the request of
Rambus.
In a statement following the pre-trial ruling, Rambus said:
"Rambus maintains its allegation that
Infineon has infringed these four patents. Rambus is prepared to
protect its intellectual property from those who infringe and looks
forward to presenting its case to the jury."
On Friday, the Nasdaq-quoted shares in Rambus fell to $15.80,
down 35% to a new low for the company. The stock’s 52 week high was
$127.
Rambus is an intellectual property company that designs,
develops and licenses high-bandwidth chip-connection technologies
which enable semiconductor memory devices to keep pace with faster
generations of processors and controllers. To date, these efforts
have resulted in more than 100 patents issued to Rambus. It has
licensed its patents to around 30 chip-makers, but others dispute
the validity of its patents which has led to a raft of legal
actions.
