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

To: mishedlo who wrote (56965)	10/7/2000 7:11:45 PM
From: Scumbria	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 93625

Michael, risking the entire business for a lousy 2% You honestly believe that Infineon is at risk of losing their business over the Rambus lawsuit? This thread moves in an alternate universe. Scumbria

To: mishedlo who wrote (56965)	10/8/2000 5:26:47 PM
From: Dan3	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 93625

Re: Someone explain this more clearly please. It's really very simple. Microchips have a mix of transistors, resistors, capacitors, and diodes on them. If the particular mix and its application didn't matter, then there aren't any possible patents to be had (other than the original ones). But it does matter, patents are granted for specific combinations (circuits) arranged to provide specific functions. Rambus put together some combinations aimed at the RDRAM enduse, and received some patents on those combinations and licensed some of them to the industry. As always, lots of things were in their patents that Rambus wasn't claiming exclusive use of (like transistors). But now Rambus has claimed that what it patented wasn't the narrowly defined RDRAM use of those circuits, they say that RDRAM is not different from a more general circuit. Infineon claims that if that is the case, then its (Infineon's) patents already cover that more general case, so Rambus has nothing to patent (including RDRAM, since Rambus now claims RDRAM is part of the general case). It is interesting to note Infineon's behavior through the whole SDRAM / DDR licensing attempts by Rambus. Infineon, according to some aggrieved statements by Rambus, refused to even negotiate with Rambus. Infineon evidently made absolutely no attempt to dissuade Rambus from any legal action, nor to delay it. IMHO, they would have tried to delay any confrontation, or at least try to work out some kind of deal unless they had no concern whatsoever that Rambus might have a valid patent on either SRAM or DDR. The behavior of Infineon seems to indicate that it is completely confident that it has prior art that invalidates Rambus's SDRAM and DDR claims. In any event, it looks like we will see the outcome within 4 to 6 months. If Infineon shows prior art and invalidates Rambus's patents, what's the company worth? Dan