Rambus

Intel rolls while Rambus and MIPS reel

Being fabless isn't so hip these days.

Rambus and MIPS Technologies are both chip companies that don't have their own chip fabrication facilities. Intel does. Perhaps not coincidentally, Rambus and MIPS are restructuring, while Intel's business is coasting on top of surging processor shipments.

Both Rambus and MIPS, which make a living off licensing intellectual property for chips, announced layoffs this week. Intel, meanwhile, is selling lots of its tiny Atom processors and seeing processor shipments surge overall.

Rambus said Thursday that it will reduce its workforce by approximately 90 positions and will take a restructuring charge … Read more

As shares tumble, Nvidia faces minor meltdown

Nvidia is in the throes of a minor meltdown. Its share price is collapsing as it grapples with widespread product defects, a resurgent Advanced Micro Devices, and a weak market.

It all started when Nvidia released a statement on July 2 saying it would take a $150 million to $200 million charge to cover the costs for repair and replacement of defective graphics silicon in notebook PCs. Though Nvidia didn't name any names, Hewlett-Packard, Apple, and Lenovo, among others, use Nvidia graphics chips in their notebooks.

Then on Thursday, July 3, shares plunged $5.54, or just over 30 … Read more

Rambus sues Nvidia for patent infringement

Rambus is suing Nvidia, accusing the company of violating 17 Rambus-held patents on memory controllers. The suit was filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

The Los Altos, Calif.-based company says that chipsets, graphics processers, and media communication processors across six different Nvidia product lines are illegally infringing. The patents held concern memory controllers for SDR, DDR, DDR2, DDR3, GDDR, and GDDR3 SDRAM.

Rambus is asking the court for an injunction (which would stop Nvidia from selling the products at issue), as well as monetary damages.

In a prepared statement, Rambus' head … Read more

RAMBUS: The battle over hold-ups in industry standard setting

If you help your industry adopt your patented technology as a standard and then sue companies that use the standard, bad things can happen. You might lose your patent rights, be sued or prosecuted for antitrust violations, unfair competition, and fraud. Even if you ultimately win your case at trial ... or on appeal ... the cost of getting mired in allegations of abusing the standards process can be high. Rambus, a memory design and patent licensing company, presents a case study in how costly and time consuming standards-related patent disputes can be. The cost to the industry can be even higher, … Read more

Thanks, Rambus

Second only to Moore's Law as a source of story ideas for pundits in the computer industry, Rambus was back in the news again last week.

This particular verdict was favorable to Rambus, but it wasn't the final word, nor was it exceptionally important. CNET News.com didn't even publish a news article about it, though Tom Krazit did write a pretty good blog post on the subject and it inspired a good post on intellectual property development from former Rambus exec Steve Tobak on his blog. Rambus has been involved in a great many lawsuits. Some … Read more

The topsy-turvy world of intellectual property companies

Intellectual property (IP) companies are unique business entities. Theirs is a complex, controversial world characterized by huge capital investments, epic legal battles, rollercoaster stock rides, fanatical investors, and of course, lots of patents.

Why should you care? Because, their technology helps almost all your gadgets work the way they do. And for that privilege, their executives, employees and investors go through hell.… Read more

Rambus wins latest legal round, beats back fraud claims

The latest round in everyone's favorite ongoing legal saga, Rambus versus the world, has tipped in Rambus' favor.

A jury ruled Wednesday in San Francisco that Rambus did not obtain patents for memory technology through fraud or anti-competitive means, in a blow to memory makers Hynix, Micron, and Nanya. Rambus has spent years trying to enforce its patents on memory used in just about every PC and server in the world, while fighting off claims that it obtained those patents through shady means.

At one point in the mid-1990s, Rambus and the memory industry sat down to work on … Read more

The Patent Reform Act will harm the U.S. technology industry

The proposed Patent Reform Act of 2007 will be coming up for a vote in the Senate in a few months. A similar version of the bill has already passed in the House.

The bill has certain relatively benign provisions, but let's ignore them since they just cloud the argument and are of little interest to either side in the debate.

Let's instead just cut to the chase. In lay terms, the bill makes it easier to challenge issued patents and harder for patent holders to obtain compensation through the U.S. legal system.

Regardless of how that sounds to you, make no mistake - this debate is between two opposing sides with their own interests at heart.… Read more

Intellectual property rights: You can't have it both ways

Have you ever, I mean ever, copied software, a CD, a DVD, or a video tape without permission or paying? How about downloading music, video, pictures, or art?

If you answered yes, congratulations, you're just like everybody else.

On the other hand, you probably also think U.S. screenwriters are being screwed by the studios. And that China and other countries shouldn't be illegally copying and selling material copyrighted in the U.S.

That, my friend, is called a double standard.

Something else to consider:

Did you read this post about Trend Micro suing Barracuda Networks for patent infringement. Do you agree with the blogger? Do you think companies like Qualcomm, Rambus, or Trend Micro are patent trolls that unjustly enrich their shareholders at the expense of consumers?… Read more