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

To: Dan3 who wrote (50426)	8/20/2000 5:38:15 PM
From: Dave B	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 93625

Let's say, for the sake of argument, that Infineon already patented the IP in Rambus's patents - before Rambus did. Then Rambus's patents are all invalid. Let's say that IBM already patented the technology. Or TI. Or Micron. Or Samsung. Or Hyundai. Or me. Then the Rambus patents would be invalid. And then let's say that the folks in the patent offices in the U.S. and Europe missed those previous patents... And let's say that Rambus neglected to mention those patents in the "prior art" patents they mentioned... I'm sorry. What was the point you were trying to make again?

To: Dan3 who wrote (50426)	8/20/2000 5:45:12 PM
From: richard surckla	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 93625

Dan3... "Let's say, for the sake of argument, that Infineon already patented the IP in Rambus's patents - before Rambus did. Then Rambus's patents are all invalid." It is my understanding they would have to show prior art that they in fact hold the patents for SDRAM and DDR, which Rambus is said to have. It was for this reason, as I understand it, that Hitachi settled because none in JEDEC could show otherwise and that RAMBUS appears to be on solid ground. This will be the reason that Infineon will settle. If it went all the way to trial and Infineon lost, even if there is the slightest chance of them losing, they would be out of business. That is a chance they just can't take no matter how great or slim their chances are. This is like one big bad dream for Infineon as well as many others. Better to settle now and get it behind and go forward.

To: Dan3 who wrote (50426)	8/20/2000 6:06:17 PM
From: Zeev Hed	Respond to of 93625

Dan, actually, Infineon does not to have to actually have patented parts of RMBS' IP to declare RMBS' patents invalid, it is enough that they show all the basic claims to be in public domain before RMBS filed its patents. Of course, I would submit that if such was possible, Hitachi would not have settled, since Infineon, in response to the below cited "clarion call", would have given Hitachi the ammunition it needed. The Dramurai sent a "clarion call" to all dram makers to try and find in their old notebooks proofs that RMBS' IP is covered by prior art, as far as I know, no cigar. Thus Infineon having patents predating RMBS' is an interesting hypothesis, but a a very unlikely event. If you want to do a patent search, don't forget to use as "assignee" Siemens, since probably all patents were assigned to Siemens. Zeev