Rambus fined $3.5 million for fraud.
  05/09/2001 4:19:40 PM MDT Albuquerque, Nm
  By Dustin D. Brand; Owner AMO

After suing Infineon, Rambus finds that they, Rambus, are guilty of fraud.   Everyone has been saying that Rambus has the best RAM/Memory chips and technology around, however this isn't the case. DDR SDRAM, the subject of this lawsuit, has comparable speeds and capabilities as the Rambus RDRAM.

  Los Altos, Calif.-based Rambus had taken Infineon to court, claiming that Infineon had infringed upon its design patents in manufacturing SDRAM (synchronous DRAM) and DDR SDRAM (double data-rate SDRAM). Rambus had made deals with other chipmakers, while Infineon, Micron Technology, and Hynix Semiconductor have held out on paying royalties to the company, which Rambus was suing for.

  As it turns out, and as the cookie crumbles so to say, Rambus got fined $3.5 Million in penalties, and found guilty of FRAUD. Rambus had been attempting to get royalties from Infineon Technologies for alleged copyright infringement of its patented computer chip technology last week. Today memory chip designer Rambus was found guilty of fraud and fined $3.5 million in punitive damages while the judge closed the book on the case.

  Expectedly, Rambus plans to appeal the ruling, which follows the same judge throwing out the final three of 57 infringement charges by the company on Friday.

  Although the jury found that Rambus should pay $3.5 million, the judge had to lower the amount to $350,000, the maximum allowed in the State of Virginia.

  U.S. District Judge Robert E. Payne ruled that Rambus improperly obtained patents on chip designs that were being developed by Joint Electron Device Engineering Council (JEDEC), the semiconductor standardization group, Rambus said in a statement.

  It doesn't look good for the Rambus company as a whole, and if this case is any indication of the other memory chip makers who have been paying Rambus illegal royalties, Rambus may find out that they want their money back following this Judges decision.

  Related AMO Articles:
   RAMBUS Market Decline.
   Rambus wins one, loses one in memory patent case.