WTF!? Rambus to continue royalty quest after ruling

[NFS4]

http://news.com.com/2100-1004-5087282.html

DIE!!!!!!!!!!:|

 

[ProviaFan]

That sucks.

It looks like Rambus is another SCO... or wait, Rambus came first IIRC, so SCO is another Rambus. Oh well, who cares, they both need to DIE! :|

 

[Jeff7]

Well you're all going to owe me a lot of money! I patented the CRT long before anyone knew of its formal invention. I just kept it secret! I just didn't think to tell anyone until now.

So pay up!!!

 

[Sunner]

Seems like the court agreed with Rambus, so Rambus is moving forward with it's claims.
Doesn't seem too strange to me.

Did any of you read the articles/docs that Ice9 used to point to when he was around?
Quite enlightening, and unless all of it was fabricated, it showed Rambus in quite another light.

 

[The Sauce]

the company committed fraud when it joined a standards body without disclosing its patent activities. Infineon claimed that the lack of such a disclosure had misled memory makers into adopting technologies Rambus later said were its own.

What a bunch of scumbags. These guys need to leave the technology indudtry and start selling heroine to school kids.

 

[Sunner]

Nice quoting out of context.
4 lines further down:

The appeals court subsequently threw out the fraud verdict, eliminated the award of attorney's fees and ruled that the trial court should not have dismissed Rambus' patent claims--prompting Infineon to take matters to the Supreme Court.

.

 

[arcenite]

*Yawn* Who cares, let them do their dirty deeds...You wanna support em? Buy RAMBUS.. you dont... well... uh.. don't.

Bill

 

[The Sauce]

Originally posted by: aRCeNiTe
*Yawn* Who cares, let them do their dirty deeds...You wanna support em? Buy RAMBUS.. you dont... well... uh.. don't.

Bill

If they get their way then you'll be supporting them anytime you buy any memory.

 

[dullard]

Rambus's first court case was lost, but that was only since the first court didn't allow Rambus to present its patents to the jury. So of course Rambus lost that one. That ruling was overturned. And ever since that Rambus has won (and should win) every single thing possible. The fact is Rambus had legal patents (as shown by many court decisions), other companies broke the patents, and now Rambus is suing. Wouldn't you do the same if you were Rambus?

Recent Rambus legal timeline:
Sept 1, 2002: Europe declares Rambus patents to be legal and valid
Jan 29, 2003: Rambus wins Infineon appeal
Mar 5, 2003: Rambus wins against FTC attempt to skip trial and go right to punishing Rambus
May 28, 2003: JEDEC related shareholder suit against Rambus is dismissed
July 10, 2003: JEDEC related derivative suit against Rambus is dismissed
Oct 6, 2003: Supreme court upholds Rambus win by denying Infineon's appeal

 

[ProviaFan]

Well, look at it this way. Even though Rambus was deceptive originally, at least now they aren't suing individual users of the technology (you and me).

After seeing how Rambus threads go these days, it makes me wonder what people will be saying about SCO vs. everyone else a year from now (when the case will undoubtedly still be going on).

 

[Acanthus]

rambus, which is now 2 years old, is only just now being passed by DDR. If intel had kept the original roadmaps we would all be on dual channel 1333mhz 64-bit modules right now.

 

[The Sauce]

Originally posted by: dullard
Rambus's first court case was lost, but that was only since the first court didn't allow Rambus to present its patents to the jury. So of course Rambus lost that one. That ruling was overturned. And ever since that Rambus has won (and should win) every single thing possible. The fact is Rambus had legal patents (as shown by many court decisions), other companies broke the patents, and now Rambus is suing. Wouldn't you do the same if you were Rambus?

Yes, however it is significant foul-play if they were pushing for their own technology as a member of a standards committee before releasing their patents and duping the rest of the memory industry into using standards that they could then later collect royalties on. That's just dirty pool.

 

[Tom]

no, that's business.

 

[dullard]

Originally posted by: Snatchface
Yes, however it is significant foul-play if they were pushing for their own technology as a member of a standards committee before releasing their patents and duping the rest of the memory industry into using standards that they could then later collect royalties on. That's just dirty pool.

It may be dirty pool, but it is perfectly legal. The patents Rambus had applied for were all public knowledge. Anyone on JEDEC could spend 3 seconds to do a patent search and find all the patents Rambus had pending. The fact that they failed to do that was plain stupid. In fact it would be so stupid that I cannot believe that no one on JEDEC ever searched - instead I think JEDEC knew of the patent and hoped with Rambus in the picture that Rambus wouldn't sue. But of course that last part is my own opinion, I have no proof just common sense.

In fact if I read correctly (I'm not a law expert), it would have been illegal for Rambus to openly discuss the pending patents to JEDEC - meaning Rambus couldn't have mentioned the patents if they wanted to.

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: Dead Parrot Sketch
no, that's business.

Just because some people did / do it doesn't mean it's right, moral, or legal.

 

[digitalsm]

The courts have said their patents are vaild.

RAMBUS won get over it.

 

[Lonyo]

Originally posted by: jliechty

Originally posted by: Dead Parrot Sketch
no, that's business.

Just because some people did / do it doesn't mean it's right, moral, or legal.

The courts say it's legal.

And where did DPS mention morals or ethics?
No one really plays fair, that's what he was saying.
Rambus played unfairly, but within the rules of the game.

 

[jiffylube1024]

Originally posted by: Acanthus
rambus, which is now 2 years old, is only just now being passed by DDR. If intel had kept the original roadmaps we would all be on dual channel 1333mhz 64-bit modules right now.

At double or triple the price, no less.

 

[iuvas]

This can only be bad news for the consumer.

I can't see why anyone would be at all happy about this (unless you're a rambus stockholder).

 

[dexvx]

So JEDEC jacks Rambus patents, and somehow Rambus is to blame? Some of you people have some funny opinions. Most of the claims of bad Rambus business practice was proved wrong by a poster named Ice9 a few months back, its just remarkable how short term a memory people have.

 

[merlocka]

Originally posted by: dexvx
So JEDEC jacks Rambus patents, and somehow Rambus is to blame? Some of you people have some funny opinions. Most of the claims of bad Rambus business practice was proved wrong by a poster named Ice9 a few months back, its just remarkable how short term a memory people have.

Agreed.

 

[Megatomic]

I'm sure many remember Ice9's very factual yet unpopular posts, but the fact of the matter is that most of us are interested in OUR OWN bottom line not that of some small tech company. For me this is the case for sure. If RAMBUS was to shrivel up and blow away in the wind most of us would care less.

 

[merlocka]

Originally posted by: Megatomic
I'm sure many remember Ice9's very factual yet unpopular posts, but the fact of the matter is that most of us are interested in OUR OWN bottom line not that of some small tech company. For me this is the case for sure. If RAMBUS was to shrivel up and blow away in the wind most of us would care less.

True. I understand that the majority would see things like that. Another "fact of the matter" is if we didn't have laws to protect IP the world would be technologically retarded. There would be no innovations because there would be no mechanism to protect them. All of the strides made in semiconductor technology are based on the protection and preservation of intellectual property.

I'd much rather pay a buck more for a stick of memory... but that's just me.

 

[Megatomic]

Originally posted by: merlocka
I'd much rather pay a buck more for a stick of memory... but that's just me.

Actually I'd be willing to pay another buck per stick of memory too, but that's not the issue here, the issue is that the already POOR DRAM manufacturers may have to pay many millions if not billions of $$$ to RAMBUS if this all goes the way I think it will. What is this going to do to these impoverished companies? Bury them is my guess... Ice9 supported that outcome IIRC, I don't. Hence my attitude towards RAMBUS.

I don't relish having to pay 2x the current cost for memory products in the future. I was enjoying the declining prices.

 

[merlocka]

Originally posted by: Megatomic

Originally posted by: merlocka
I'd much rather pay a buck more for a stick of memory... but that's just me.

Actually I'd be willing to pay another buch per stick of memory too, but that's not the issue here, the issue is that the already POOR DRAM manufacturers may have to pay many millions if not billions of $$$ to RAMBUS if this all goes the way I think it will. What is this going to do to these impoverished companies? Bury them is my guess... Ice9 supported that outcome IIRC, I don't. Hence my attitude towards RAMBUS.

I don't relish having to pay 2x the current cost for memory products in the future. I was enjoying the declining prices.

DRAM manufacturers selling DRAM for a loss to maintain revenue... has something to do with RAMBUS? Those guys made their own bed, now they have to sleep in it. I don't like the thought of paying 2x the price for memory either, but that is a completly different topic that has nothing to do with this ruling (other than you may eventually have to pay $201 for a stick of ram rather than $200).