Patent Ruling Sinks Rambus

A federal court dismisses its claims against Infineon.
By Chris Kraeuter ,

Rambus (RMBS) - Get Report shares dropped 11% to $15.21 in late-session trading Tuesday after the company's patent infringement claims against Infineon (IFX) were dismissed in a Virginia federal court retrial.

Judge Robert E. Payne dismissed all of Rambus' claims from U.S. District Court in Richmond, Va., but did not dismiss Infineon's monopoly claim against Rambus.

Los Altos, Calif.-based Rambus has several outstanding court cases with major chipmakers, including

Micron Technology

(MU) - Get Report

,

Hynix Semiconductor

, Infineon and

Siemens

(SI) - Get Report

, Infineon's former parent company.

However, Payne's ruling is limited only to Infineon and Rambus.

Rambus licenses its memory technology to chipmakers for use in their own products.

Intel

(INTC) - Get Report

, the world's largest chipmaker, is Rambus' largest customer.

Toshiba

and

Samsung

also license Rambus' technology.

Rambus said it intends to appeal.

"We look forward to eventually presenting our patent claims on the merits so our contributions to the industry and the value of our inventions are clear," said Rambus General Counsel John Danforth, in a statement. "In the meantime, we feel we have a strong case on appeal."

Rambus' case against Infineon stretches back five years. Rambus lost its initial case against Infineon in 2001 in District Court, but won a reversal at the appellate level in 2003. The case was remanded to Payne's court for retrial.

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