Rambus Inc. is not a troll

Patent trolls are described by Philip Brooks as that "growing number of companies that do nothing but acquire broad, mostly Internet-related patents and troll for licensees, usually among small companies ill-equipped financially to fight threats of litigation."

What does one call a small patent owning company that faces off against the large players of a multiple-billion dollar industry where many in the industry have colluded to starve and engage the small company in litigation? Some would say, Rambus, Inc.

As early as next week in a federal court in San Jose, California, Hynix Semiconductor Industries, Inc., may become infamous for throwing the pitch that Rambus, Inc. hits out of the park when a jury finds that Hynix owes Rambus a few hundred million dollars for infringing on Rambus patents.

As early as next month, Judge Kramer, in a California court in San Francisco may bring the memory manufacturing industry to its collective knees in a prayer for mercy and forgiveness. Why? Because His Honor will be allowing the public release of a few of the documents that the U.S. Department of Justice discovered while investigating the memory manufacturing industry for price fixing.

Rumor and speculation have it that these documents will show that certain companies engaged in shocking behavior intended to illegally pad their bottom lines and put Rambus, Inc. out of business. If this is true, very un-American behavior by at least one vigorously flag-waving company.

The clock ticks ever so surely to the magic hour or as one dear friend noted in an e-mail - "the wheels of justice turn ever so slowly but grind ever so finely."