LOS ALTOS, Calif., Apr 28, 2009 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Rambus Inc. (Nasdaq:RMBS) today announced that the U.S. District Court
for the Northern District of California has issued a ruling pertaining
to various claims made by Samsung relating to the parties' 2000 SDR/DDR
license agreement ("License"). Although the Court agreed with Samsung
that it was entitled under the License's "Most Favored Licensee" clause
to the benefit of the lower royalty in the March 2005 settlement
agreement between Rambus and Infineon Technologies for the second
quarter of 2005, the Court rejected Samsung's attempt to extend such
benefits beyond the term of the License. As such, the Court found that
Samsung was not entitled to most favored licensee status after June 30,
2005, the date the License was set to expire.
The Court also determined that contrary to Samsung's contention, the
License did not cover DDR2 and future generation products and that
Rambus did not fail to negotiate an extension or renewal license in good
faith. Because the Court determined that Rambus failed to prove that
Samsung had breached the License's audit provisions, the Court found
that Rambus had improperly terminated the License on that basis.
However, the Court concluded that this termination did not cause the
parties' failure to reach agreement on an extension or renewal. Further,
the Court found that Samsung's equitable estoppel defense failed;
therefore, the patent damages Rambus could seek from Samsung for
infringement after June 30, 2005 were not capped by the Infineon royalty
payments.
Samsung is part of the coordinated cases before the Honorable Ronald M.
Whyte. The coordinated cases were filed by Rambus in 2005 and 2006
alleging patent infringement related to memory products manufactured by
Hynix, Nanya, Micron, and Samsung. The above findings arise from a
separate bench trial Judge Whyte conducted in September and October
2008, on claims unique to Samsung.
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.
RMBSLN
SOURCE: Rambus Inc.
Rambus Press Contact:
Rambus Public Relations
Linda Ashmore, (650) 947-5411
lashmore@rambus.com
Copyright Business Wire 2009