Rambus Slapped Again: Court Protects Infineon Against Patent Charges

If there's a company that could use a good spin doctor, it has to be Rambus. The company has managed to incur the wrath of even those who haven't used their products by virtue of its questionable business practices. Yesterday, the beleaguered RDRAM vendors received yet another black eye. In what is turning out to be one of the lengthiest court battles of the year (and there have been many), the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia said it will issue an injunction barring Rambus from asserting its "fraud-tainted" U.S. patents (this quote from Infineon's announcement) against any of Infineon's SDRAM and DDR SDRAM products. The Court's entry of a permanent injunction affirms the August 2001 decision of Federal District Judge Robert E. Payne to uphold a Virginia jury verdict that Rambus committed fraud in connection with the SDRAM standardization process of the Joint Electronic Device Engineering Council (JEDEC). In actions taken during and as a result of the litigation, Judge Payne dismissed all of Rambus' patent infringement claims related to both Infineon's SDRAM and DDR SDRAM products. Judge Payne also ordered Rambus to pay Infineon more than $7 million in attorney's fees and expenses incurred by Infineon as a result of the suits heard by the Court. The Court based the payment order on its finding that the patent infringement claims of Rambus were "baseless, unjustified and frivolous." Not surprisingly, Rambus almost immediately announced that it will appeal the ruling. According to John Danforth, senior vice president and general counsel of Rambus Inc., the order "builds upon and adds to a series of reversible errors previously made by the same Court. These include clear errors of law and fact that are the subject of a pending Rambus appeal for which Rambus has already filed its opening brief. The breadth of today's order amplifies these earlier mistakes and adds further reversible errors that Rambus will separately contest. We look forward to successfully resolving these issues in the Court of Appeal for the Federal Circuit." The lawyers seem to be the only winners in this little side show. I knew I picked the wrong the wrong vocation, but I look stupid in a suit anyway.