Rambus - no more Mr. Nice Guy

Rambus announced today (6/6/05) that it has added Samsung as a defendant in its pending patent infringement suit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Previously named (and remaining) defendants include Hynix, Nanya Technology and Inotera Memories. In this suit, Rambus claims that Samsung memory (DDR2) and graphics memory(GDDR2 and GDDR3) devices are infringing Rambus patents. In the amended complaint Rambus claims that Samsung is infringing on 14 patents.

Rambus has separate litigation with Hynix pending in that jurisdiction that has been bogged down by the U.S. Department of Justice's request that Rambus wait to receive discovery that might impact the DOJ's investigation of DRAM manufacturers price fixing and Rambus' 8th inning discovery of backup tapes.

Rambus also announced that it filed a separate suit against Samsung wherein Rambus alleges that Samsung is infringing Rambus 11 patents covering SDRAM and DDR memory and controllers that work with those memory types. The complaint is not currently available at rambus.com.

Despite the litigation, Rambus CEO Harold Hughes assures that all is not bad between Samsung and Rambus stating:

We continue to value our relationship with Samsung as one of the primary manufactures of memory using our XDR DRAM and RDRAM designs. We very much hope that there is an opportunity in the near future to normalize all other aspects of our relationship as well.

Donkey Notes:

1) Is there any relation between the new litigation and the recent up tick in Rambus share price prior to the announcement?

2) Was the filing of the complaints a foregone conclusion once IFX settled?

3) What is Abraham Sofaer doing?