This article is more than 1 year old

Infineon (Siemens) accused of deliberate patent theft

And Payne goes incandescent in Rambus case

Documents now available on the Rambusite show that the real reason the patent trial between Rambus and Infineon is delayed is because a fresh deposition accuses Siemens Semiconductor, which spun off Infineon as a separate unit, of deliberately and knowingly appropriating its technology.

The trial, which was supposed to start Monday of this week, is now scheduled to begin in April.

The Rambus deposition alleges that Siemens Semiconductor knew about its technology, contrary to statements it has sworn, and that a briefing, held in 1992 and only discovered on an Infineon hard disk at the last minute, appears to confirm that claim.

The minutes of the meeting suggest that executives at Siemens had realised that Rambus technology could be easily changed into synchronous memory, according to lawyers for the US firm.

Transcripts of this briefing allege that Rambus was described by a Siemens suit as a "deadly menace to the established computer industry". Another passage suggests that standards body JEDEC also suggested a public domain version of Rambus technology.

One of the planks in the case of Dramurai refusing to pay the Rambus shilling is that the Los Altos firm went away and patented SDRAM and DDR technology after sitting quietly at JEDEC meetings picking up loads of info and saying, as the Yorkshire folk in this country say, nowt. (See link to Zen Buddhism story below).

The transcript of the goings on in Virginia last Friday show that Judge Robert E. Payne went incandescent when he found out about late evidence from Infineon.

The transcript of the meeting has him saying: "Infineon has not satisfied its obligations to produce documents fully. And again, I'm not making a finding that anybody is at fault in this, these things happen in large cases. That said, I don't think it's fair for Infineon to have any advantage at all out of its mistake... so I'm not going to entertain any summary judgement notion."

It also emerges from the same docket that Rambus appears to have conceded that at least one of its claims for the patents in question will not stand. And, in another twist, an appeal has been lodged by Rambus to stay a clause that invoked the tough US anti-racketeering laws.

What's for sure in all of this? Judge Payne and a jury will decide in April. But we reckon that RMBS share price, traditionally a bump'n'grind experience, and which stood at just over $17 when Wall Street closed last night, will probably go flying sky high today... ®

* Many thanks to those Ramboids who have sent a fresh barrage of abuse. Please keep them coming. It's already a bumper bundle.

Related Link

The Docket at Rambusite

Related Stories

Judge limits Rambus patent claims
Zen Buddhism could swing Rambus case

More about

TIP US OFF

Send us news


Other stories you might like