Judge stays Rambus patent infringement case
Rambus continues to believe its view will be vindicated.
By Gail Flower, Contributing Editor -- EDN, February 4, 2009
A judge from the US District Court of Northern California has stayed the patent infringement case filed by Rambus against memory manufacturers Micron Technology, Nanya Technology, Samsung Electronics, and Hynix Semiconductor in view of a recent ruling from the Delaware District Court.
On January 9, the US District Court of Delaware ruled that Rambus cannot enforce the patents against Micron due to spoliation, or destruction of evidence, as a part of company policy after a period of time has passed. In an earlier case against Hynix, the California court found that Rambus had not destroyed any evidence. Judge Ronald M Whyte cited the Delaware determination in his ruling.
"We are pleased that Judge Whyte recognized that the Delaware court’s unenforceability ruling impacts the patents asserted by Rambus in the California matter, and that he stayed Rambus’ patent case against Micron,” said Rod Lewis, Micron’s VP of legal affairs and general counsel, in a statement.
Hynix, Nanya, and Samsung did not immediately respond to Electronic News request for comment on the stay from Judge Whyte.
In a separate ruling, the California court denied Hynix’s motion for summary judgment based on the Delaware ruling.
"While we are disappointed with the stay of the coordinated cases, it is our expectation that the conflicting opinions of the district courts regarding document spoliation will go up together on appeal,” said Tom Lavelle, senior VP and general counsel at Rambus, in a separate statement. “We believe our view will be vindicated.”
The cases against all four memory manufacturers before Judge Whyte were first filed by Rambus in 2005, alleging patent infringement. Now that the court has stayed the proceedings, the stay will expire upon the Federal Circuit’s resolution of Rambus’ appeal from the Delaware court’s spoliation order or further order of the District Court of Northern California. All parties will appear for a case management conference on May 22, to address whether the stay should remain in place.
