Rambus, the US-based chip design company, has requested that a
US court re-tries its recent legal dispute with German chip maker
Infineon in which a judge dismissed all claims by Rambus that
Infineon had infringed its patents and the jury then found Rambus
guilty of fraud. Rambus argues that no reasonable jury would have
sided with Infineon on the basis that Infineon failed to establish
the requisite elements of fraud.
Rambus was held to have committed fraud by failing to disclose
to an industry standards body that it had applied for patents
covering memory chip technology.
Rambus also argues that according to Virginia state law, a fraud
claim must be “filed within two years from actual enquiry or
notice.” Rambus alleges that Infineon’s fraud claims result from
knowledge of its patents that Infineon gained in 1997, therefore it
was time-barred against raising the allegations.
Rambus also alleges that the judge in the case against Infineon
misled the jury over previous patent law precedents.
