NEC to pay royalties to Rambus
By Mariko Ando, CBS.MarketWatch.com
Last Update: 4:15 AM ET Sep 13, 2000 NewsWatch
Latest headlines
TOKYO (CBS.MW) -- NEC Corp., the world's second-biggest semiconductor maker, announced Wednesday it has signed licensing agreements with Rambus Inc. to use the U.S. company's computer-memory designs for a broad range of products.
Under the agreement, NEC will pay royalties on intellectual property used in the manufacture of NEC's SDRAM, DDR and next-generation RDRAM memory devices.
The pact also includes the development of the next-generation Direct RDRAM as part of an extension of licensing and strategic alliance agreements between the two companies, NEC said in a statement.
"NEC was quick to recognize the potential of Rambus (RMBS: news, msgs) as a technology partner, and we've achieved significant successes as a result of our close partnership," Kanji Sugihara, an official of NEC Electron Devices, the semiconductor arm of NEC (NIPNY: news, msgs), said in a statement.
NEC's decision to license more of Rambus's products designs follows a similar step by the country's other leading chipmakers such as Toshiba Corp., Hitachi Ltd. (HIT: news, msgs) and Oki Electric Industry Co. which agreed to pay royalties earlier this year.
Mitsubishi Electronics (MIELY: news, msgs) also said late last month that it was in licensing talks with Rambus, although none has been signed yet.
Meanwhile, some chipmakers are fighting Rambus in the courts and pushing alternative products to avoid paying royalties.
Rambus filed lawsuits in France and Germany against South Korea's Hyundai Electronics Industries Co. and Micron Technology Inc. of the U.S. (MU: news, msgs) for alleged patent violations in SDRAM and DDR memories.
Rambus has also asked the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) to investigate suspected patent infringements of certain chips imported into the U.S. by Hyundai.
Both Micron and Hyundai filed lawsuits against Rambus in U.S. courts late last month, saying some of Rambus's patents are illegal. |
