LOS ALTOS, Calif., Mar 10, 2009 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Rambus Inc. (Nasdaq:RMBS) today announced that the U.S. District Court
for the Northern District of California has entered final judgment in
the Hynix Semiconductor (000660.KS) matter. Judgment was entered against
Hynix in the amount of approximately $134M for infringement through
December 31, 2005 and approximately $215M for its infringement from
January 1, 2006 through January 31, 2009. In addition, the Court awarded
about $48M in pre-judgment interest to Rambus.
The Court also ordered Hynix to pay Rambus royalties on net sales after
January 31, 2009 and before April 18, 2010 of 1% for SDR SDRAM and 4.25%
for DDR SDRAM memory devices. The latter rate applies to DDR, DDR2,
DDR3, GDDR, GDDR2 and GDDR3 SDRAM devices, as well as DDR SGRAM devices.
Damages and the compulsory license apply to U.S. infringements of the
patent claims in suit. Execution of the Court's judgment is stayed for
14 days in order for Hynix to file a motion under Rule 62 seeking relief
from final judgment pending an appeal.
"We are pleased with the Court's decision and are gratified by the
tremendous time and energy the Court has dedicated to this matter," said
Thomas Lavelle, senior vice president and general counsel at Rambus.
"Though this case has been long and arduous, we remain steadfast in our
commitment to seek fair compensation for the use of our patented
innovations."
This case was originally filed by Hynix against Rambus in August 2000.
The Honorable Ronald M. Whyte of the U.S. District Court for the
Northern District of California split the case into three separate
phases with Rambus subsequently prevailing in all three phases. During
the first phase, Hynix alleged that Rambus' patents were invalid based
on the doctrine of unclean hands. The Court issued its Findings of Fact
and Conclusions of Law in Rambus' favor in January 2006. In ruling that
"Hynix's unclean hands defense fails," the Court concluded that "Rambus
did not engage in unlawful spoliation of evidence." The Court also found
that the "evidence also does not demonstrate that Rambus targeted any
specific document or category of relevant documents with the intent to
prevent production in a lawsuit such as the one initiated by Hynix," and
that the evidence "does not show that Rambus destroyed specific,
material documents prejudicial to Hynix's ability to defend against
Rambus's patent claims." The Court reaffirmed its finding of no
spoliation when it denied Hynix's motion for reconsideration in February
2009.
The second phase dealt with Rambus' allegations that Hynix memory
products infringed its patents. In April 2006, a jury unanimously found
that all ten Rambus patent claims at issue in that trial are valid and
infringed by Hynix memory products. The jury award of approximately
$307M in damages for U.S. sales of infringing Hynix products through
December 31, 2005, was subsequently reduced by the Court to
approximately $134M.
In the third and final phase of the case, Hynix (together with Micron
and Nanya) tried its remaining claims and defenses against Rambus
including antitrust and fraud claims based on Rambus' participation in a
standard-setting organization called JEDEC. In March 2008, a jury found
Rambus had acted properly during its participation in JEDEC in the early
1990s. The Court also recently rejected Hynix's (and Micron's and
Nanya's) equitable JEDEC-related claims and defenses, finding that the
evidence supported the jury's finding "that JEDEC members did not share
a clearly defined expectation that members would disclose relevant
knowledge they had about patent applications or the intent to file
patent applications on technology being considered for adoption as a
JEDEC standard." The Court further found that "not only did Rambus not
have an obligation to disclose pending or anticipated patent
applications, it had sound reasons for not doing so."
About Rambus Inc.
Rambus is one of the world's premier technology licensing companies
specializing in the invention and design of high-speed memory
architectures. Since its founding in 1990, the Company's patented
innovations, breakthrough technologies and renowned integration
expertise have helped industry-leading chip and system companies bring
superior products to market. Rambus' technology and products solve
customers' most complex chip and system-level interface challenges
enabling unprecedented performance in computing, communications and
consumer electronics applications. Rambus licenses both its world-class
patent portfolio as well as its family of leadership and
industry-standard interface products. Headquartered in Los Altos,
California, Rambus has regional offices in North Carolina, India,
Germany, Japan, Korea and Taiwan. Additional information is available at www.rambus.com.
This release contains forward-looking statements under the Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements regarding
our intention to continue our innovations, filing of patents and efforts
to be fairly compensated for our patented inventions.Such
forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, estimates
and projections about our industry, management's beliefs, and certain
assumptions made by our management. Actual results may differ materially.Our business generally is subject to a number of risks which are
described more fully in our SEC filings including our 10-K and 10-Qs.
RMBSLN
SOURCE: Rambus Inc.
Rambus
Linda Ashmore, 650-947-5411 (Public Relations)
lashmore@rambus.com
Copyright Business Wire 2009