Re: Interestingly, they are not claiming that RAMBUS did not disclose the relevant patent s to JEDEC they are saying that RAMBUS subsequently modified the patents using JEDEC material. This is a real stretch since the patent claims are usually moving targets during the course of the patent process.
This is going to very simple to check. Hitachi says Rambus modified its patent applications to include information disclosed to it in JEDEC material and at the JEDEC meetings (some of it old technology dating back to decades old IBM mainframes).
I would expect that the recent move by rambus to demand royalties for SDRAM is going to alienate their entire customer base, but I could be wrong.
While most cases drag on forever, this one may not need to. If there is any validity to Hitachi's claim (and rambus trying to require licenses for any and all SDRAM makes some of their claims seem dubious, at best. When was SDRAM first sampled?) it could raise questions about the validity of the entire Rambus patent portfolio. What is the value of Rambus minus it patents?
Look, I'm not holding any position in rambus right now, though I think that the company is basically a parasite on the industry, so I'll leave it at that.
Good luck to you, if rambus can make their claims stick, you'll probably be paying royalties to rambus for every electronic device you ever buy, including toasters and electric toothbrushes and the stock will soon be worth $1,000+ - but if they push their luck too far and the whole thing blows up on them, that won't happen, and the stock will go down quite a bit.
Dan |
