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U. S. Supreme Court Rejects Appeal in the Rambus Patent Standards Interface Fight
German memory chip maker, Infineon Technologies AG, lost its appeal to stop rival chip company Rambus Inc. from seeking patent royalties on a high-speed computer memory technology. The double data rate (DDR) technology for dynamic random access memory (DRAM) is used by about 80 percent of the DRAM market. Infineon's petition for a Writ of Certiorari was dismissed without reasons on October 6, 2003.
Rambus sued Infineon for patent infringement in late 2000. In response to the claims for royalty payments, Infineon denied infringement and counterclaimed that Rambus was barred from enforcing its patents due to fraud. Infineon claimed that Rambus participated in Joint Electron Devices Engineering Council (JEDEC) high-memory standard setting negotiations in the 1990s and then tried to collect royalties on patents it held once the standard was set. Infineon argued Rambus was obligated to disclose its relevant patents and patent activities during the JEDEC proceedings. The adoption of the JEDEC standard, which includes Rambus' patented technology, amounted to fraud by Rambus. A jury agreed and rendered a verdict at trial in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia that awarded Infineon approximately $10 million in damages and litigation costs.
The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed the trial court ruling in early 2003 and concluded that there was insufficient evidence to support a finding of fraud. That decision is important to a wide range of issues related to standard setting and intellectual property.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruling remanded the case to the trial level to determine further issues of infringement.. However, many industry players such as Intel and Samsung already pay royalties to Rambus and industry experts predict Rambus may have claims for approximately $450M annually in royalties from Infineon and others adopting Rambus' technology.
For a copy of Infineon's Supreme Court docket, see:
http://www.supremecourtus.gov/docket/03-37.htm
For a copy of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit decision, see: