The case dates back to 2000 when Hynix, formerly known as Hyundai Electronics, asked the US District Court of Northern California to rule that it did not infringe on any Rambus patents.
Rambus, which designs, develops and licenses high-bandwidth chip-connection technologies, responded with an infringement action. It cited 59 claims of patent infringement by Hynix memory products, basing its claims on 15 Rambus patents.
Last week Rambus announced that it won an important stage of the suit when the court issued a ruling on seven motions for summary judgment (i.e. judgments without trial), one from Rambus and six from Hynix.
According to Rambus, of the six motions filed by Hynix, Judge Ronald Whyte granted only one. This removed nine claims in four patents from the case, reducing the number of claims in the case from 59 to 50. Judge Whyte rejected Hynix's arguments against the validity and infringement of the remaining 50 claims.
Rambus won its own motion, the court finding that Hynix infringes 29 claims from four asserted Rambus patents. Those 29 claims are among the 50 Rambus claims that survived Hynix's summary judgment motions on non-infringement and validity.
"This summary judgment of infringement is great news and a major step forward toward our goal of being fairly compensated for our innovations," said John Danforth, senior vice president and general counsel at Rambus. "We look forward to trial, which is currently set for March."
Rambus is also suing Infineon and Micron Technology for refusing to pay royalties for its technology. Last May it filed another lawsuit against its three competitors and Siemens AG, accusing the four of conspiracy to restrict output and fix prices, conspiracy to create a monopoly, unfair competition and intentional interference with prospective economic advantage.
