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Technology Stocks : Rambus (RMBS) - Eagle or Penguin -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: denni who wrote (44485)	6/15/2000 11:45:00 PM
From: jhg_in_kc	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 93625

Found this on another thread. Is this guy right? <<Off Yahoo by Watzman-- Rambus has about 100 patents issued and 100 more applied for from 1990 onward covering ALL TYPES of memory, including DDR and even plain old SDRAM (which didn't exist until 1993, three years after the 1st Rambus patents). The Rambus patents do not just cover RDRAM. Rambus has been saying for years that their patents covered DDR, some SDRAM, and some microprocessors, but no one paid attention. In January, Rambus begain legal actions to collect TRIPLE DAMAGES against violators. Currently, three distinct actions are well in process, although these will be years being resolved. The actions are a patent infringement suit against Hitach in US Federal court, a Patent Infringement suit against Hitach in Germany (outcome will probably be enforceable in the entire EU community), and an ITC (International Trade Court) action against Hitachi AND Sega (the Dreamcast uses not just memory, but PROCESSORS that Rambus believes infringe their patents). What this means is that Toshiba, no lightweight, has examined the patents and that they feel sufficiently strongly that the patents are valid and enforceable, that they have determined that the best course of action is just to license them and pay the royalties rather than to risk the court fight (if you lose in a court fight, the damages may be TRIPLED, depending on the exact circumstances). This is probably the first stone of an avalanche, although Toshiba is BIG, and it's a boulder sized stone. However, if the Toshiba action spreads, the whole RDRAM - DDR argument will become a MOOT POINT, because Rambus will be collecting royalties on BOTH RD-RAM AND DDR. In fact, the suggestion is that the royalties are GREATER on DDR than they are on RDRAM. It's almost enough to make WANT to see DDR win. This is HUGE NEWS (and I don't use that phrase lightly ...>