“Rambus Inc. (RMBS), the designer of high- speed memory chips, was barred by a judge from using 12 of its patents to demand royalties from Micron Technology Inc. because it improperly destroyed documents tied to intellectual-property litigation.
U.S. District Judge Sue Robinson in Wilmington, Delaware, said yesterday the patents are unenforceable as a sanction against Rambus officials who engaged in a document-destruction campaign designed to “gain a litigation advantage” in a patent-infringement lawsuit over technology for high-speed memory chips. Robinson made her ruling after an appeals court sent the case back for her consideration.
“Rambus’s destruction of evidence was of the worst type: intentional, widespread, advantage-seeking and concealed,” Robinson concluded in a 46-page ruling. The judge said the “only appropriate sanction” was to find the patents unenforceable.
The ruling comes after a California judge found in September that Rambus should be sanctioned for destroying documents in a patent case involving SK Hynix Inc. (000660), a South Korean company that is the world’s second-largest maker of computer memory chips….”
If you enjoy the content at iBankCoin, please follow us on Twitter
