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Rambus Patent Claims Dismissed 149

Posted by CowboyNeal from the momentary-setbacks dept.
Gogo Dodo writes "The patent infringement claim by Rambus, the SCO of the chip world, against Infineon have been dismissed by a judge in Virginia due to Rambus destroying documents relating to the lawsuit." Of course, Rambus is already planning an appeal, so this may not be over just yet.
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Rambus Patent Claims Dismissed More

Rambus Patent Claims Dismissed

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  • Enron and Arthur Andersen (Score:5, Insightful)

    by fembots ( 753724 ) on Friday March 04, 2005 @03:34AM (#11842188) Homepage
    I think after Enron and Arthur Andersen [bbc.co.uk], if you touched the documents you're gone.
    • Shouldn't that be "torched the documents" ?

    • Destroyed documents? Ha! Enron was making freaking snow with its documents, I didn't see any charges against them.

      • Re:Enron and Arthur Andersen (Score:5, Interesting)

        by miu ( 626917 ) on Friday March 04, 2005 @07:33AM (#11842860) Homepage Journal
        Of course there are some benefits to being old frat buddies with the president aside from fond memories of keggers and coke.

    • Re:Enron and Arthur Andersen (Score:5, Interesting)

      by dpilot ( 134227 ) on Friday March 04, 2005 @10:07AM (#11843614) Homepage Journal
      Martha Stewart gets out of prison today, and starts her house arrest.

      and AFAIK, there's only been one Enron defendent that has actually gone to prison - two if you count that the courts were going to let the man and his wife (names forgotten) server their terms serially, so the other could keep the home with the kids.

      Good to know that justice was swift with a $60k problem that really affected no third parties, and nice and slow (slow as in never?) on a multi-billion dollar problem that bilked thousands out of their retirements and/or life savings. IMHO the noise against Martha last year was a sideshow to divert us from Enron. Last I heard, Ken Lay was putting together a web site to tell "his side of the story."
      • Lea Fastow, who is actually just 2 blocks down the street from me in the Federal equivalent of county jail, is also serving a sentence for lying. In her case lying on her taxes.

        What would you charge Ken Lay with? How do you prove that Ken Lay or Jeff Skilling engaged in fraud when both their accountants, Aurthur Anderson, and their attorneys, Vinson & Elkins, said the deals were legit?

        It's one thing to say they were poor managers and didn't understand the businesses they were running, but to prove bey
      • Lay and Skilling aren't in prison (yet), but they haven't exactly benifitted from the scam. They were both rich before Enron was dirty, and are less rich now. Neither will ever work in their chosen field again. Sure, more punishment may be fitting, but give it time, the court cases are still underway.

        Certainly their auditors, who committed the biggest crime IMO, paid quite a price: you can bet that had a deterrent effect on other auditing companies!

        Vengence may be fun, but it's not the primary goal of
    • As a company you should always have a policy on document destruction and follow it very closely. That way if you ever are investigated documents can be proved to be destroyed based on company policy. It is only illegal to destroy documents if you are currently under investigation or are expected to be under investigation shortly.

      Arthur Andersen did have a document retention/destruction policy and we were kept informed about it frequently. Where they got in trouble was doing it after investigations were sta

  • First Post... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by LuYu ( 519260 ) on Friday March 04, 2005 @03:36AM (#11842193) Homepage Journal

    It is about damn time that Rambus got punished for this. They have been deceiving the court since the beginning. They also lied about pending patents. They should have all of their patents (even the ones unrelated to this case) revoked as punishment for their abuse of the patent system.

    • Re:First Post... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by TheWanderingHermit ( 513872 ) on Friday March 04, 2005 @09:38AM (#11843398)
      First, it's about time. I worked as a videographer in 2000-2001, and taped MANY Rambus/Infineon depositions. I was glad to be in the know about what was going on, but after a while it got quite boring -- except in situations where a lawyer was questioning an expert. I remember one time an Infineon lawyer was questioning a Rambus hired expert and asked him what a flip-flop was. He answered a switch, then the lawyer asked him if it could be used as memory, and the expert (rightly, if you remember your electronics) said in some situations. After an hour, the lawyer still wasn't clear on what a flip-flop was, but the expert had answered every question accurately!

      It was pretty clear, from the beginning (I think one deposition I had to do one Saturday morning was the first in the case), that Rambus was trying to pull a fast one, but all the technicalities let them keep doing it. Unfortunately, the Infineon lawyers were, almost every single one, rude, pompous jerks that reminded me of Commandant Klink swaggering around like they were important and the Rambus lawyers are calm, polite, and great to work for. It was a shame to see the nice guys on the side I hoped would lose.
      • I remember one time an Infineon lawyer was questioning a Rambus hired expert and asked him what a flip-flop was.

        I would have answered, "British slang for a bi-stable multivibrator".

      • the Infineon lawyers were, almost every single one, rude, pompous jerks that reminded me of Commandant Klink...

        They're Germans, they could be descendants of Klink. ;)

        • Actually, no -- and, honestly, the German connection was not in my mind when I wrote that (although the image of them swaggering around back when I worked with them may have had some connection to that). Infineon had hired a New York law firm to handle their case. The law firm for Infineon was from the Southwest, somewhere from Texas to California (don't remember exactly, and don't remember the firm names).

          I remember only one German, either as a lawyer or a witness. He was being questioned about a meeti
      • It was a shame to see the nice guys on the side I hoped would lose.

        I had to read that twice before I realized that the nice guys you were referring to were the lawyers. Even now I'm not completely sure.

  • in addition (Score:2, Interesting)

    by em0te ( 807074 )
    yeah, they shred documents only when litligation is brought about...but it's all just coincidence. so none of it should be taken into consideration.

    • Re:in addition (Score:5, Interesting)

      by ravenspear ( 756059 ) on Friday March 04, 2005 @03:46AM (#11842229)
      The stupid thing is, litigation was not "brought about." They brought the damn litigation! I guess they just didn't realize how stupid their claims were until the ridiculousness of it all became apparant in court. Then they probably shredded the documents to cover their ass, avoid countersuits, etc.
      • Then they probably shredded the documents to cover their ass, avoid countersuits, etc.

        Is this actually going to work?

        I mean, wouldn't the knowledge they shredded documents be about the worst thing possible for them in a countersuit?

        • Re:in addition (Score:3, Informative)

          by ravenspear ( 756059 )
          I mean, wouldn't the knowledge they shredded documents be about the worst thing possible for them in a countersuit?

          Not if the documents contained more incriminating evidence. It's certainly a indicator of duplicity but you can't convict someone based on the hearsay of "I think this is what was in those documents."
      • "Hey, we need to get back in the game...Quick bring about easisly dismissed claims to get us in then news then tomrrow we'll release something and everyone will think we learned from our 'mistakes'".

  • Rambus rhombus (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    well well, rambus is so not square?
  • Chip's Ahoy !!

  • In other news... Rambus faces patent infringement (Score:5, Funny)

    by AthenianGadfly ( 798721 ) on Friday March 04, 2005 @03:43AM (#11842219)
    Rambus faces a patent infringement suite from SCO for using their business model and becoming the "SCO(tm) of the chip world"

  • Legal Section (Score:5, Interesting)

    by nacturation ( 646836 ) <nacturation AT gmail DOT com> on Friday March 04, 2005 @03:55AM (#11842257) Journal
    I, for one, think it's about time the slash overlords created a Legal section. This really doesn't have anything to do with online rights. Similar to the Politics section, a Legal section would hold stories like these, SCO's machinations, and any other article where it's two companies duking it out in court and where my rights aren't affected.

    • Re:Legal Section (Score:5, Funny)

      by Duncan3 ( 10537 ) on Friday March 04, 2005 @04:02AM (#11842281) Homepage
      I'm sure that's on their list right under "stop posting dupes"

      • Re:Legal Section (Score:5, Insightful)

        by ravenspear ( 756059 ) on Friday March 04, 2005 @04:30AM (#11842363)
        Actually I doubt that's on the list at all. Taco has said that he doesn't really care that much about the dupe thing and he thinks people who constantly complain about dupes are dumb.
        • And he is absolutely, perfectly right. If slashdot was a site with just a few readers, they'd be dupes. But slashdot is big enough for them to be reruns, for the people who missed the news.

          And more importantly:

          It's only a dupe if you're dumb enough to read it two times!

        • OT: CmdrPot, meet kettle (Score:5, Insightful)

          by Platinum Dragon ( 34829 ) on Friday March 04, 2005 @08:33AM (#11843077) Journal
          he thinks people who constantly complain about dupes are dumb.

          Oh really?

          I think dupes, especially ones posted within the space of a day, are an indication that the editors are not even reading their own site. There have been numerous recent examples of editors failing to check for working links and at least ensuring a hint of accuracy in submission text, along with proper attribution, before posting. If they're going to take the time to post something on a page viewed by millions, they can take a few extra minutes to make sure it isn't crap, or posted two hours earlier and three items down the page. Otherwise, wtf are they doing all day?

          Really, if the editors/authors can't live up to their self-granted titles, and can't give the viewing community--which is helping pay for the site either through ad views or subscriptions--a greater degree of oversight that they won't do themselves, I see no reason to ever subscribe. As it is, I'm pretty close to mapping slashdot.org to 127.0.0.1 in my hosts file and staying away for a while.
          • I agree. But over the past few years, I've come to the conclusion that the site management and "editors" are idiots and just don't give a fuck about what their readers think. Running a quality web log is just not a priority. So none of our complaining is going to change it. The only thing to which they might take notice is if everybody leaves, and /. stops getting any hits. Of course, that will never happen.

            -b

          • Re:OT: CmdrPot, meet kettle (Score:1, Insightful)

            by Anonymous Coward
            Slashdot has no real competition so there really isn't much incentive for the quality of service to improve. Most of the slashdot experience comes from flaming people on message boards so it doesn't matter that much that the story postings are low quality. The most important thing is that they generate discussion.

            • Slashdot has no real competition so there really isn't much incentive for the quality of service to improve. Most of the slashdot experience comes from flaming people on message boards so it doesn't matter that much that the story postings are low quality. The most important thing is that they generate discussion.

              Fah, Slashdot has piles of competition. The reality is that the only people that care about dupes are the type of people that spend all day clicking on /. so that they can get a first post, or a

          • I think it would be more appropriate to send your comments to CmdrTaco's bosses. It reflects poorly on all of the OSTG sites, to allow it to be run with such a cavalier attitude toward fairness, accuracy, and craftsmanship. CmdrTaco may have started the site as a "whatever I want" blog, but now it's got a life of its own, a responsibility to the community, and he's got a boss to whom he answers.
          • Let me guess: You do complain constantly about dupes!

          • As it is, I'm pretty close to mapping slashdot.org to 127.0.0.1 in my hosts file and staying away for a while.

            Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. Taco's right, constantly complaining about dupes is dumb. Dupes have been part of Slashdot for a long, long time. If you're repeatedly complaining you're a fool. After all, you keep coming back, so clearly it isn't bad enough and Taco has no incentive to change anything. Spending the additional time to reduce the number of dupes has no sign

          • That's Cowboy Kettle, you insensitive clod!!!

            (sorry... couldn't resist. ;-)

        • Re:Legal Section (Score:4, Funny)

          by Alomex ( 148003 ) on Friday March 04, 2005 @09:57AM (#11843537) Homepage
          Ahh, the Unix philosophy: it's the users' fault.

          Is the story duplicated? It's the users' fault.

          Can't edit a story to correct a typo? It's the users' fault.

          Can't understand arcane command syntax? It's the users' fault.

        • Actually, to be fair I don't mind dupes. If a story was up a week or a month ago sometimes it gives us a chance to discuss it fresh. However, all dupes are not created equal. Having a dupe story created within one day/hour of the original just shows laziness, and double-duping (a dupe of a dupe) is even more annoying.
      • or the second?

        or the third?

    • Re:Legal Section (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Neophytus ( 642863 ) on Friday March 04, 2005 @04:03AM (#11842285)
      And rename YRO into just YR, because it's clear that general rights issues do have a place here.

    • Re:Legal Section (Score:2, Informative)

      by capt.Hij ( 318203 )
      Judging from all the links on slashdot to groklaw I just assumed that groklaw is the legal section. Groklaw usually has the legal stories first with better commentary from a person who has a pretty good idea of the law. (Not that that ever mattered on slashdot...)

    • *sigh*

      We don't need another section. Hell, the IT and Linux sections are superfluous--there's almost nothing in the main index anymore. We need less sections, not more.
    • Why bother separating them, when the "new and improved" Slashcode won't let you exclude sections from your main page anymore? If they decide it's a feature article, it's going to show up in your list, no matter what your settings.

      The section only decides which horrid color scheme it will be displayed in...

  • Appeal (Score:4, Interesting)

    by alset_tech ( 683716 ) on Friday March 04, 2005 @03:58AM (#11842265) Homepage
    You would think that when a company destroys evidence they lose the right to appeal. These are the times in which we live.

    • Re:Appeal (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Keeper ( 56691 ) on Friday March 04, 2005 @05:04AM (#11842434)
      You are assuming that they did destroy evidence. If you lost the right to appeal a decision based on findings in that decision, you'd end up with a catch-22 type situation that could be abused.

      They'll get their appeal. If the appelete court finds nothing wrong with the lower courts decision, they'll lose. If the lower court erred, they'll get a do-over, and they'll win or lose on the merits.

  • Litigation (Score:3, Insightful)

    by DenDave ( 700621 ) on Friday March 04, 2005 @04:16AM (#11842319)
    I think that consumers who own systems with rambus rimms should file a class action suit for damages incurred due to non-upgradability.. I have a buddy with Dell Systems stuck with 128 mb of ram 'cuz local vendors (dell included) no longer ship rimms...

    Sue the Fockers...

    • Re:Litigation (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Associate ( 317603 ) on Friday March 04, 2005 @04:25AM (#11842347) Homepage
      Buyer beware.
      I can't sue IBM because they soldered the procs into their early mother boards.
    • I guess you could call that a rimm job.

    • Re:Litigation (Score:3, Informative)

      by Detritus ( 11846 )
      Are your friends too lazy to use google to search for vendors?

      I've bought them from http://memorysuppliers.com [memorysuppliers.com] in the past. They're available. They work. You might not like the price when compared to more mainstream products, but those are the breaks.

    • Should I sue Sony because my old Betamax VCR is now all-but useless due to the non-availability of Betamax tapes?
    • Apparently your buddys never heard of "www.eBay.com"
    • No offense, but you, sir, are a moron.

      I am a proud owner of an Asus P4T-E (with an i850 chipset), w/ 1gb of PC800 RDRAM memory. I specifically chose RDRAM when I built the machine back in 2001, because the only other choice at the time was DDR-200/266 w/ the original i845 chipset, or PC133 w/ the same chipset. (if you recall, performance of the original i845 was less than spectactular)

      All of my friends questioned my choice of RDRAM when building my system, saying I wouldn't be able to overclock (which i

      • Re:Litigation (Score:3, Funny)

        by DenDave ( 700621 )
        LOL
        What starts out a sarcastic jest turns into a flame war..
        Actually in some countries rimms are extremely hard to come by and they are disproportionatly expensive.
        C'mon, folks, rimms suck ass (ROFL) and so does the consortium who frauded on them!
        And yep, I am sure you could get a rimm on ebay.. if it hadn't been for ebay banning services you could probably get a rimm job..LOL!! Oh oh.. this is going awry .. next AC post will probably tell us who this has to do with a man and his goat.. ROFL!!
    • It is odd that your friend can't find RDRAM for his Dell. I bought 512MB PC800 RDRAM (2x256MB modules) from a vendor on Pricewatch.com about 6 weeks ago. Memory was used to upgrade a Dell Dimension 8100 that originally shipped with 128MB. Oh, and I just now checked Dell's website. They most certainly do sell, and presumably ship, RDRAM memory upgrades (from PC800 to PC1066).
  • Then wonders why RAMBUS would be worried about suing a non-existent company!

    SCO, Infinium, in the same story, that would have been wierd!

    Sorry I should read slashdot more often... (is this good or bad news? I forget which side to cheer for sometimes!)

  • Oh no! (Score:4, Funny)

    by null etc. ( 524767 ) on Friday March 04, 2005 @05:09AM (#11842457)
    "The patent infringement claim by Rambus, the SCO of the chip world, against Infineon have been dismissed by a judge in Virginia due to Rambus destroying documents relating to the lawsuit." Of course, Rambus is already planning an appeal, so this may not be over just yet.

    Man, I really hope they win the appeal. I'd hate to see them lose their ability to innovate.

  • I know that this is slightly offtopic, but am I the only one that is getting sick of all the appeals? I am beginning to think that an appeal should be an automatic thing. After all, everybody else does it, why not just make it mandatory?

    My $0.02
    • It is pretty much standard practice in high-profile cases, which is why you notice them all the time. However, crimes such as speeding and rarely appealed. But then again, they don't end up on the front page of slashdot either.

  • Ram busted (Score:4, Insightful)

    by harvey the nerd ( 582806 ) on Friday March 04, 2005 @08:11AM (#11842982)
    It's about time. The courts need to begin to seriously sanction deceiptful and fraudulent behavior, otherwise, Chaos. This is a minimal sanction. Surely the judge recognized the previous fraud conviction, tossed but..., as well as clear document destruction makes this a no brainer. At all levels - Court of Appeals, Supremes, GWB, Congress - I think Rambus' credibility is SCO'd. Busted Rambus! Stick to your own inventions next time please.
    • Well, they *really* did invent the technology that they're protesting about. The trouble is, iirc, that they hoodwinked the rest of the industry into copying it just far enough before they split the consortium. (And commenced suing.)

      I wonder just how much money is involved. Other ram makers just caved in and started paying the royalties. Infinium didn't, but must maintain this ad nauseum court action. I wonder who's further ahead?

  • Damn (Score:3, Funny)

    by dilby ( 725275 ) on Friday March 04, 2005 @09:01AM (#11843196) Journal
    I'd be scared if I was the judge...Oh wait sorry Rambus not Rambo's. Silly me.

    • Re:Damn (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      >Oh wait sorry Rambus not Rambo's

      it's ok. Put the crack pipe down, then we can help you
  • So I guess the "RIMM JOB" is over and done with?

    >:D
  • "The patent infringement claim by Rambus, the SCO of the chip world, against Infineon have"

    The patent infringement claim HAS not HAVE.

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