Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

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

To: Scumbria who wrote (45164)	6/20/2000 12:38:00 AM
From: Dave B	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 93625

Scumbria, Should an owner of a tiny piece of American IP be able to demand arbitrarily high royalties from manufacturers of a large offshore product? If it's a company I'm invested in, then absolutely. <G> I have no idea why you're focusing on U.S. vs. offshore companies, though. Interesting viewpoint. Wouldn't the question be the same regardless of where the companies were located? Why is their location important? How are fair royalties determined? You have me there -- I have no idea. But my suggestion would be something along the lines of "what the market will bear". If you try to charge too much, then you force your licensees to try to find alternatives (as many of the bears are claiming will happen). We'll just have to see whether that happens or not. The first toss came up for Rambus -- one of the DRAM manufacturers publicly recognized the validity of their claims and decided to pay them royalties. If more join in, then we'll know that at least short-term they've decided it's not worth fighting. Longer term, who knows? Irrespective of any of these discussions, there's always someone out there looking to displace the current technology or open new markets. Someone may come along who can make Rambus's patents moot. Dave