Infineon, Rambus butt heads
Significant patent lawsuit under way
BY MCGREGOR MCCANCE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Apr 24, 2001
Like a good novel, the patent infringement trial between Infineon Technologies AG and Rambus Inc. didn't take long to develop a clear, compelling theme.
Somebody has been lying, cheating and stealing, lawyers for both sides said in opening arguments yesterday.
And when jurors in the U.S. District Court case in Richmond decide who it is, their verdict is expected to reverberate throughout the computer industry.
The dispute is over Rambus patents and how they apply to several varieties of computer memory products, known as dynamic random access memory, or DRAM.
Rambus, a California company, designs memory but does not manufacture it. Germany-based Infineon, spun off of Siemens AG, is a top 10 global producer of DRAM. It employs about 1,800 at a factory in eastern Henrico County.
Yesterday, each company made a similar claim: The other side essentially cherry-picked technical features in memory design during the past decade and used them to its advantage.
Infineon attorney John Desmarais told jurors that Rambus embarked on a "long and fraudulent scheme" designed ultimately to control the global computer memory market. Memory is a basic component of every personal computer.
"The scheme didn't work because it's going to be stopped right here," he said. "The entire company was involved in the attempt to monopolize this industry."
Rambus lawyer David Monahan suggested the case is one of a LAWSUITcompany fairly building a business on intellectual property, only to have Infineon (then a unit of Siemens AG) copy design components.
Drawing from sometimes decade-old notes, e-mails and memos, Monahan told jurors that his team will prove Siemens made a calculated decision years ago when confronted with the Rambus technology to "cheat Rambus out of royalties."
"They haven't stopped to this day," he said.
No one disputes Rambus' right to collect royalties on its unique memory, called Rambus dynamic random access memory, R-DRAM.
The controversy erupted when Rambus claimed its patents also apply to the current memory standard, synchronous dynamic random access memory - SDRAM - and a newer variety, double-data rate SDRAM.
It sued several manufacturers. Some agreed to pay Rambus royalties instead of going to court; others countersued. While several cases are pending, this is the first to go to trial.
Desmarais said evidence will prove that Rambus filed for patents but later filed for amendments after it discovered what direction memory standards were taking. The goal, he said, was to stretch Rambus patents so the company could pursue royalties on far more than just R-DRAM.
"That was their plan all along," he said.
The case has generated widespread interest from the investing and technology communities. The outcome here will have ramifications in each, in addition to the millions in potential royalties at stake for each company.
Observers say the case also could influence the role and strength of intellectual-property patents.
Judge Robert Payne said the sides will begin introducing evidence this morning. |
