Rambus, based in California, has been looking to win licensing and royalty payments for the manufacture of common PC memory technologies for some time. Infineon, Europe’s third largest chip manufacturer, is being sued in respect of Rambus patents for synchronous-dynamic-RAM (SDRAM), a standard component in almost all PCs. The US company has already successfully negotiatated licensing agreements with Toshiba, Hitachi and Oki Electric for SDRAMs – but has yet to assert its rights in court.
It was previously rumoured that Infineon was considering suing Rambus to attack the legitimacy of the company’s patent rights and some observers see the action by Rambus as a pre-emptive strike.