Ruling in Patent Dispute Sends Chip Maker Shares Soaring
Rambus, the developer of memory chip technology, said Wednesday that it won an important ruling in a long-running patent lawsuit, sending its shares 39 percent higher.
The jury rejected claims by three large memory-chip makers — Hynix Semiconductor, Micron Technology and Nanya Technology — that Rambus deliberately misled the memory chip industry in the 1990s when new standards were being hammered out.
They claim Rambus failed to disclose it was seeking patents on the technology that was then being worked into standards for chip production.
Analysts have estimated Rambus, based in Los Altos, Calif., could eventually collect royalties of hundreds of millions to billions of dollars over the next decade. It is not yet clear when Rambus might receive any back royalties.
