Judge Robert Payne, in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, issued a pre-trial ruling that reduced Rambus’ infringement allegations from 57 to 8 by restricting the coverage of its four SDRAM and DDR SDRAM technology patents, a move which could have severe implications for the ability of Rambus to demand licence fees and royalties from other manufacturers. The trial has now been postponed until 10th April at the request of Rambus.
In a statement following the pre-trial ruling, Rambus said:
"Rambus maintains its allegation that Infineon has infringed these four patents. Rambus is prepared to protect its intellectual property from those who infringe and looks forward to presenting its case to the jury."
On Friday, the Nasdaq-quoted shares in Rambus fell to $15.80, down 35% to a new low for the company. The stock’s 52 week high was $127.
Rambus is an intellectual property company that designs, develops and licenses high-bandwidth chip-connection technologies which enable semiconductor memory devices to keep pace with faster generations of processors and controllers. To date, these efforts have resulted in more than 100 patents issued to Rambus. It has licensed its patents to around 30 chip-makers, but others dispute the validity of its patents which has led to a raft of legal actions.