Rambus Patent Trial Delay Sought in California by Chipmakers

Memory-chip manufacturers argued in court documents that Rambus Inc., a designer of high-speed memory chips, can’t enforce its patents in a California court case based on a judge’s ruling in Delaware.

Lawyers for Hynix Semiconductor Inc., Micron Technology Inc., Samsung Electronics Co. and Nanya Technology Corp. submitted letters yesterday to U.S. District Judge Ronald M. Whyte in San Jose, California. The manufacturers argued a trial scheduled to begin Jan. 20 over Rambus’s patent-infringement claims should be delayed because of the ruling against Rambus in Delaware last week. At least one chipmaker argued Rambus’s patent claims are unenforceable.

Judge Sue L. Robinson in federal court in Wilmington, Delaware, ruled Jan. 9 that Rambus can’t use 12 of its patents to demand royalties from the chipmakers because it destroyed documents in that case.

Rambus, in court filings yesterday in San Jose, argued the Delaware decision offers "no occasion for delaying, let alone derailing, the upcoming trial."

"By the Delaware court’s own reckoning, the purportedly destroyed documents have no bearing on the validity defenses that the manufacturers plan to assert at the trial, nor is there any suggestion that these documents would be relevant to infringement or damages," Rambus wrote in its filing.

Micron’s Argument

The Delaware ruling applied specifically to Boise, Idaho- based Micron, which should lead Whyte to render Rambus’s patents in San Jose unenforceable, Micron lawyer Jared Bobrow wrote in his letter. "Plainly, Micron should not be part of the upcoming patent trial and the court should immediately stay those proceedings," he wrote.

Hynix, along with Taiwan-based Nanya and Suwon, South Korea-based Samsung, argued the Delaware ruling can be extended to the California case, and that a Jan. 30 hearing on that argument should displace the Jan. 20 patent trial.

In 2006, Whyte rejected similar document-destruction arguments made by Ichon, South Korea-based Hynix. Rambus claimed last week that Robinson’s decision is "highly inconsistent" with Whyte’s ruling.

Micron, Hynix, Samsung and Nanya are challenging 10 Rambus patents in the San Jose case. The Delaware case involved 12 Rambus patents for high-speed memory chips. Based on a comparison of patent numbers in Robinson’s order and a court filing by Rambus in San Jose, four of the patents are involved in both cases.

Rambus spokeswoman Linda Ashmore didn’t immediately return a call or e-mail seeking comment after business hours yesterday.

Whyte is scheduled to hear arguments today on whether the Delaware ruling applies to the California case.

The case is Rambus Inc. v. Hynix, 05-00334, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Jose).

(Published by Bloomberg - January 14, 2009)