Rambus, a US company that designs and licenses semiconductors,
is suing Hyundai Electronics and Micron Technology in both German
and French courts for alleged patent infringement, following
actions against it by the two rival companies.
Rambus is seeking to stop the sale, manufacture and use of
Hyundai products that Rambus says infringe its patents. It is also
asking the International Trade Commission (ITC) in the US to
investigate Hyundai for alleged unlawful imports of the chips that
Rambus says infringe its patents. In March it sued Hitachi for
alleged patent infringement, although that case has since
settled.
Rambus said yesterday that the suits were filed after
negotiations over Rambus' intellectual property rights were
pre-empted by the filing of a lawsuit by Hyundai in the United
States, alleging that Rambus’ patents are illegal.
“[Intellectual property] is our business and we will not
hesitate to protect our IP when it is being used without a
license”, said Geoff Tate, CEO of Rambus. “Rambus develops and
licenses intellectual property - since the early 1990s, we
established and still maintain the leadership in high bandwidth
chip connection technology. Our objective is to continue to produce
innovations that will benefit the semiconductor and systems
industries, and by licensing these innovations to generate a return
on investment to our shareholders.”
