Rambus seeks to halt Hynix RAM shipments

Memory producer Rambus today revealed that it will petition for an injunction against industry rival Hynix, barring the latter from shipping RAM that allegedly infringes on Rambus patents. The action was requested after a federal court green-lighted legal efforts against Hynix as well as fellow memory producers Micron and Nanya, saying that the move to enforce patents would not tread on US antitrust laws. Rambus has said it would be willing to license the patents in exchange for royalties for memory sold.

A successful injunction and license would potentially restrict the supply of RAM for computers from many larger computer manufacturers, many of whom depend on the second-largest world supplier, and would result in total licensing royalties worth hundreds of millions of dollars for Rambus over the course of the next ten years.

All three of the accused firms have rejected the concept of an injunction and say they will appeal the injunction to permit continued sales of their technology. Micron responded to the news by asserting that none of the disputed patents have merit, negating the initial justification for the ban.

Rambus is best known for the high-speed RAM used with certain Pentium 4 processors earlier this decade as well as the XDR memory used with Sony's PlayStation 3.

Filed under: industry
Other story tags: sony, PS3, Micron, Hynix, Pentium, Rambus, Nanya