Rambus Slammed by European Patent Ruling

"The fact that Rambus can't assert its European patent in Europe doesn't mean that Infineon can't produce and sell in the U.S. Infineon is still subject to U.S. [intellectual property rights] because their [dynamic random access memory chips] are still finding their way into the U.S.," said Mike Crawford, an analyst at B. Riley & Co. "In practice, as long as Infineon knows any of its memory might end up in the U.S., it [cannot] infringe on U.S. intellectual property."

Crawford's firm doesn't do investment banking for Rambus, but he owns Rambus shares.

Regarding the European decision, "I think the best analogy is that Rambus has a quiver full of arrows and only one needs to hit the target in their royalty litigation," he said. "This is one arrow being taken out of the quiver."

Of much greater significance to Rambus is a legal decision expected Feb. 17, he added. That's when a federal administrative law judge is scheduled to make recommendations to the Federal Trade Commission on how to proceed in the government's antitrust action against Rambus.