Rambus Inc. (RMBS) said South Korea's SK Hynix Inc. (HXSCF,
000660.SE) has agreed to pay $240 million to end a patent dispute
over memory-chip technology that has dragged on since 2000.
The settlement, Rambus says, underscores a new strategy by the
company to minimize litigation and work more collaboratively with
users of its technology.
Ron Black, who was appointed chief executive of Rambus a year
ago, said the company is determined to distance itself from another
breed of licensing companies--sometimes called "patent trolls" by
their critics--that buy and sell patents but don't create
inventions of their own. Rambus, by contrast, licenses technology
developed by its own engineers.
"Somehow we got thrown into the patent troll bunch," Mr. Black
said. "This is just not the case."
Mr. Black said the company will attempt to settle other patent
cases, including another long-running patent battle with Micron
Technology Inc. (MU).
"We look forward to settling these things with the other
parties," he said.
Under the settlement announced Tuesday, SK Hynix will receive a
license to certain Rambus patents covering chips called DRAMs in
exchange for paying $12 million per quarter for the next five
years. Other terms of the agreement are confidential.
The settlement comes after a series of court rulings in the
battle between the two companies. Most recently, a federal court in
San Jose, Calif., ruled that Hynix had infringed Rambus patents,
but also concluded that Rambus owed $250 million to the South
Korean company for improperly destroying documents relevant to the
case.
Mr. Black said the settlement dispenses with the need for Rambus
to pay anything to Hynix.
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