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To: Apollo who wrote (26873)	6/27/2000 8:48:00 AM
From: Todd Bishop	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 54805

The patent was filed in 1990 or so but wasn't awarded until the latter part of 1999 if memory serves. Perhaps they were afraid opening the proverbial "can of worms" before the patent was awarded would derail their application. I'm interested in rel's response as well but this is the reasoning I came up with. Todd

To: Apollo who wrote (26873)	6/27/2000 7:31:00 PM
From: rel4490	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 54805

< <<Does it make sense for a company like Rambus, which is pushing DRDRAM, to wait until the a minute before midnight, to roll out its patent claim on SDRAM and DDR? SDRAM has been around for years; why miss out on all those royalties for the past 5 or so years? >>> Apollo, I can't add much more to Todd Bishop's response. My understanding is that the key patent covering SDRAM was applied for in 1990, but was not issued until 1999. RMBS attempted to negotiate with Hitachi in 1999, but was totally rebuffed. The Lawsuit was filed in January of 2000. A second lawsuit against Hitachi was filed in February, 2 days after additional patents were issued. Rambus management clearly made no public waves with respect to SDRAM until January,2000. To what extent they exerted private claims, or whether in fact RMBS even believed it had IPR in SDRAM prior to the issuance of the patents, we will probably never know. Rumors on the RMBS thread have Merrill Lynch doubting that all the DRAM manufacturers will settle without a fight.