Rambus sues Infineon in Germany

Rambus Inc. has filed a second patent infringement lawsuit, in Mannheim Germany, against the German Infineon Technologies AG. The suit seeks to ban the sale, manufacture and use of Infineon SDRAM and DDR SDRAM memory devices Rambus says infringe its patents. The first suit was filed in the Eastern District Court in Virginia. One analyst speculates that the move may be prompted by the fact that the German patents in question are several years older than its US patents, which some critics of the company say are illegally based on ideas presented in chip industry open standards talks.

A day and a half earlier, Rambus brought retaliatory European suits against Micron Technologies and Hyundai Electronics America, and asked the International Trade Commission to ban Hyundai's product from the US. At about the same time, NEC signed a limited licensing agreement to pay Rambus fees for SDRAM and DDR.

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