Rambus' Take on Italian Ruling

Electronic News, June 11, 2001

RAMBUS INC. LAST WEEK POSTED ON ITS WEB SITE A TRANSLATION of the recent court ruling from its SDRAM patent-infringement suit against Micron Technology Inc. in Monzo, Italy. Electronic News previously reported Micron's take on the case ("Micron Claims Court Victory Against Rambus," Electronic News, May 28, 2001), that the ruling confirms Micron's SDRAM and double data rate SDRAM products do not infringe on Rambus' patents, according to Micron. The court documents were not translated until after the Electronic News deadline; additionally, Rambus released a formal statement on the matter after press time for the May 28 article. (Rambus did not respond to repeated calls asking for comment.)

"The Monzo Court judge, overruling the findings of the court-appointed, independent experts, declined to grant Rambus a preliminary injunction," Rambus said in its statement. Rambus stated that the court-appointed experts determined that Micron's SDRAM memory devices fall within the scope of the Rambus patent. According to the Rambus-chartered translation of the Monzo court ruling, the judge said the Monzo case has to result in a solution unfavorable to the applicant in that it prevents a final decision on infringement as far as the preliminary proceedings are concerned.

"The (Monzo) case was tried, and it was determined that we were not infringing, and the injunction was not upheld," said a spokesman for Micron, Boise, Idaho. "This was a preliminary proceeding. The full merits of the case will be proven in the Milan case. They will be presenting more evidence, and it will be a much more in-depth proceeding."

The translation posted on Rambus' site was done by a translator hired by Rambus' outside counsel, according to a Rambus spokeswoman, who spoke to Electronic News last Thursday.