US government rules three Barth patents invalid, sends Rambus scrambling

[Snipeye]

US government rules three Barth patents invalid, sends Rambus scrambling
By Darren Murph posted Jan 30th 2012 7:46AM

Suing's easy. It's the "winning" that trips folks up. Such is the case with Rambus, who has been relying oh-so-heavily on the so-called trio of Barth patents to actively pursue just about every technology company on the planet. For those unaware, Rambus has christened itself as a "technology licensing company," but with the last of three patents used to win infringement suits against NVIDIA and HP being declared invalid, it's probably scrambling for new tactics.

According to a Reuters report, an appeals board at the US Patent and Trademark Office declared the patent invalid a few days back, with the previous two being knocked back in September. A couple of months back, Rambus' stock lost 60 percent of its value after a court decision led to the loss of a $4 billion antitrust lawsuit against Micron and Hynix, and we're guessing things won't be any happier when the markets open back up on Monday. The company's next move? "We're evaluating our options," said spokeswoman Linda Ashmore.

http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/30/us-government-rambus-barth-patents-invalid-ruling/

 

[Narh]

Never heard of "Rambus" until just now

 

[mad pistol]

RAMBUS is a company that makes their profits off of the ownership of patents. They secure the patents secretly, let the market swell with the technology, and when the technology is well entrenched in society, they spring the patent on the business world and sue everyone in their wake. It's a very bad, but profitable business model.

They made RDRAM back in the days of the pentium 4. The RAM was very fast, but extremely expensive. DDR and DDR2 were much cheaper and nearly as fast. After that loss, they haven't been able to make a comeback in the memory world, so instead they sue people using their patents as leverage.


I'm glad to hear that justice was served in this case. RAMBUS is finally going to go belly up, and I will not miss them.

 

[reflex99]

RAMBUS is a company that makes their profits off of the ownership of patents. They secure the patents secretly, let the market swell with the technology, and when the technology is well entrenched in society, they spring the patent on the business world and sue everyone in their wake. It's a very bad, but profitable business model.

They made RDRAM back in the days of the pentium 4. The RAM was very fast, but extremely expensive. DDR and DDR2 were much cheaper and nearly as fast. After that loss, they haven't been able to make a comeback in the memory world, so instead they sue people using their patents as leverage.


I'm glad to hear that justice was served in this case. RAMBUS is finally going to go belly up, and I will not miss them.

I don't think anyone advertises their acquisition of patents... just sayin'


In their defense, most of their patents are legitimate, and i'm pretty sure if your hard work was being used without licence you would be pretty pissed too.

But for all intents and purposes, Rambus is a massive patent troll. Only Apple is able to troll harder....

 

[mad pistol]

But for all intents and purposes, Rambus is a massive patent troll. Only Apple is able to troll harder....

but apple is still making products that are appealing to the general public. That's something that RAMBUS never quite got right.

 

[a pet rock]

but apple is still making products that are appealing to the general public. That's something that RAMBUS never quite got right.

Only shows that Apple is multi-talented. It can't be ignored that Apple has many patents that are absolutely ludicrous and can and will bring others to court over them. Still patent troll, just not only a patent troll.

 

[reflex99]

but apple is still making products that are appealing to the general public. That's something that RAMBUS never quite got right.

They still license a lot of stuff, so obviously it is something the public wants.

Apple has brought Samsung to court because Samsung's device has rounded corners.

 

[Snipeye]

They still license a lot of stuff, so obviously it is something the public wants.

Apple has brought Samsung to court because Samsung's device has rounded corners.

And is rectangular in appearance, because Apple owns the patent on THAT apparently. :chair: