Anyone following the technology industry doesn’t need to be told that patent litigation is often a long-running, byzantine affair that only gets more confusing the more it’s examined. Case in point: memory developer Rambus has just been awarded supplemental damages in its patent infringement case against Hynix. Although Rambus’s request for injunctive relief was denied by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California—which would have kept Hynix from shipping products using Rambus technologies—Hynix is being forced to execute a mandatory license for nine Rambus patents found to be used in Hynix SDRAM products. Hynix will be required to pay Rambus a one percent royalty on SDR DRAM products and a 4.35 percent royalty on DDR SDRAM products sold in the United States going all the way back to January 1, 2006. These royalties are on top of $133 million in damages already levied against Hynix for patent infringement up through December 31, 2005.
