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Rambus files patent suit against Micron after judge lifts stay

Rambus Inc has sued Micron Technology Inc in California hours after it won a ruling in Delaware allowing it to proceed with patent claims against Micron.

Friday's patent case, filed in federal court in San Jose, followed a ruling by US district judge Kent Jordan in Wilmington, Delaware, lifting an order that prevented Rambus from proceeding with the Delaware case or filing new patent suits against Micron.

The new suit also brings Micron into the same Northern California court where Rambus has sued memory manufacturers Samsung Electronics Co, Hynix Semiconductor Inc and Taiwan's Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技), Rambus general counsel John Danforth said in an interview.

"The lifting of the stay in Delaware means that we are for the first time in several years free to assert newer patents against Micron and to challenge newer products," Danforth said.

Rambus, which says its patents cover fundamental aspects of all memory chips, is extending its claims against Micron to include the latest version of the chips called Double Data Rate 2, or DDR-2. Memory chipmakers improve their products by increasing the storage capacity and the speed at which the semiconductors can read and write new information.

"It's our policy not to comment on pending litigation. We will continue to defend our position vigorously," said Daniel Francisco, a spokesman for Boise, Idaho-based Micron.

Rambus has initiated and defended lawsuits in Delaware, Washington DC, Virginia and California. Last week, Rambus shares rose 20 percent after US district judge Ronald Whyte in San Jose ruled that the company can proceed with its case against Hynix, the world's second-biggest memory chipmaker. That case is the first of Rambus's four infringement suits in federal court to clear the legal hurdles required to get to trial.

"We do not look at this as an escalation, but an important step toward resolving these cases as swiftly as possible out of court," Danforth said.

The "discontinuity" of the various cases in different jurisdictions "seems to operate as a disincentive to settle," he said.

The Delaware suit had been delayed while Rambus awaited rulings in other patent cases, according to Danforth. The company asked the court to lift the order in June.
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