Prophet, then I take it you didn't read this. My position was stated last evening before any news was presented. This was the news this morning. As the suit papers are reviewed I'm sure more will be disclosed. But every thing revolves around "excessive royalty rates." Sorry.
Micron Sues Rambus For Antitrust Violations
Aug 29, 2000 (Tech Web - CMP via COMTEX) -- Micron Technology on Monday
announced a federal lawsuit against Rambus, accusing it of antitrust violations
and asserting that certain patent claims are invalid.
The suit revolves around Rambus Inc.'s efforts to collect extra royalties from
DRAM makers for patents on SDRAMs, double data rate (DDR) memories, and
controllers interfacing to those chips.
Details about the suit by Micron Technology Inc. (stock: MU), filed in U.S.
District Court in Delaware, were not immediately available.
The Boise, Idaho, company said its suit accuses Rambus (stock: RMBS) of
violating "antitrust laws and also asserts invalidity, noninfringement, and
nonenforceability of Rambus patents pursuant to a number of different bases."
In recent months, Rambus has stepped up its campaign to collect royalties on
high-speed SDRAMs, DDR chips, andmemory interfaces not conforming to its Direct
Rambus memory format. Rambus officials have promised to pursue royalties for all
types of fast DRAMs and controllers.
This summer, the Mountain View, Calif.-based company struck new licensing and
royalty agreements for those patents with Oki Electric Industry Co. Ltd.,
Toshiba Corp., and Hitachi Ltd. (stock: HIT). Rambus also filed a U.S. lawsuit
against Infineon Technologies AG (stock: IFX) accusing the German chip maker of
violating its patents. Infineon officials have vowed to fight the suit.
techweb.com
Copyright (C) 2000 CMP Media Inc.
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