Rambus Inc still must face chipmaker Infineon Technologies AG's claims that the high-speed chip designer misused information from an industry standards group in the 1990s to obtain patents, a judge said.
US District Judge Robert Payne in Richmond, Virginia, declined to dismiss the racketeering and fraud allegations against the Los Altos, California-based Rambus.
Infineon filed the counterclaims after Rambus sued last year, alleging Europe's biggest chipmaker infringed four US patents for DRAM designs.
Payne last week threw out Rambus' patent-infringement claims against Infineon. Closing arguments on the remaining Infineon counterclaims against Rambus are scheduled to begin today.
"Infineon is seeking to get Rambus' patents declared unenforceable as a result of Rambus' misconduct at [the Joint Electronic Device Engineering Council]," which could result in firms now paying royalties to stop paying, chip-industry analyst Mark Edelstone of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter said.
Infineon alleges in its complaint that Rambus "intentionally misled" members of the standards committee, which "promulgated standards that Rambus now claims are covered by its patents."
"We participated in JEDEC but did nothing that was against the rules or anything that we felt was improper," Rambus Chief Financial Officer Gary Harmon said.
Had Rambus proven Infineon infringed its patents, analysts said it might have been in a position to collect as much as US$1 billion in license fees and royalties from other companies.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
STORM’S PATH: Kong-Rey could be the first typhoon to make landfall in Taiwan in November since Gilda in 1967. Taitung-Green Island ferry services have been halted Tropical Storm Kong-rey is forecast to strengthen into a typhoon early today and could make landfall in Taitung County between late Thursday and early Friday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, Kong-Rey was 1,030km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), the nation’s southernmost point, and was moving west at 7kph. The tropical storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 101kph, with gusts of up to 126 kph, CWA data showed. After landing in Taitung, the eye of the storm is forecast to move into the Taiwan Strait through central Taiwan on Friday morning, the agency said. With the storm moving
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work