Rambus, a US company that designs and licenses semiconductors, is
suing Munich-based Infineon Technologies AG for infringing the
patent on its chip technology. It is seeking to recover revenues
for use of the technology.
Rambus, based in California, has been looking to win licensing
and royalty payments for the manufacture of common PC memory
technologies for some time. Infineon, Europe’s third largest chip
manufacturer, is being sued in respect of Rambus patents for
synchronous-dynamic-RAM (SDRAM), a standard component in almost all
PCs. The US company has already successfully negotiatated licensing
agreements with Toshiba, Hitachi and Oki Electric for SDRAMs – but
has yet to assert its rights in court.
It was previously rumoured that Infineon was considering suing
Rambus to attack the legitimacy of the company’s patent rights and
some observers see the action by Rambus as a pre-emptive
strike.
