Patent Law

Rambus Rambles

By Gary Odom and Jordan Kuhn

Memory chip patent holder Rambus saw its stock soar 39% on news that a San Jose jury dismissed charges from competitors Hynix, Micron, and Nanya, that Rambus rigged the playing field by getting patents on the SDRAM memory standard. This is a turnaround from a 2001 jury verdict validating a fraud charge from Infineon, and a 2006 FTC ruling of deception, now on appeal.

Rambus stock shot up $7.25, to $28.86 per share.

Rambus General Counsel Tom Lavelle purred: "Over the years, the company has got a tarnished reputation. I hope this is the beginning of turning that around."

Hynix, Micron, and Nanya vowed appeal. Micron attorney Jared Bobrow mused that the jury overlooked key testimony about members of the standards body, the Joint Electron Device Engineering Council (JEDEC), being expected to work together in good faith. Bobrow claimed that JEDEC members did not know that Rambus was filing patents. Bobrow didn't explain why that story fell on deaf ears during the seven-week trial.

Punters expect the fight to continue, but consider this ruling as paving the path to a royalty windfall in the billions. Rambus has numerous suits against many computer memory makers. Michael Cohen at Pacific American Securities in San Diego speculated royalties could reach $11.7 billion for 2000-2011. Making exact number estimates for wild guesses often fools the hoopleheads that you know what you are talking about. 

Rambus is a small Los Altos California company that design memory chips, but does not manufacture, instead licensing the technology.

Full post as published by The Patent Prospector on March 26, 2008 (boomark / email).