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Hynix Semiconductor, the world’s No. 2 maker of dynamic random access memory (DRAM), has agreed to pay Rambus royalties for usage of the latter’s patents. The agreement moves the companies closer to the end of eight year old legal dispute between the two companies.
The parties have agreed to royalty rates of 1% for SDR SDRAM and 4.25% for DDR SDRAM memory devices for net sales after January 31, 2009 and before April 18, 2010. The latter rate applies to DDR, DDR2, DDR3, GDDR, GDDR2 and GDDR3 SDRAM devices, as well as DDR SGRAM devices. In addition, a proposed final judgment of $349 million in damages, plus pre-judgment interest of approximately $48 million has been submitted to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The final amount of pre-judgment interest depends on the date final judgment is entered. Damages and royalty rates are limited to U.S. infringements.
“While the Court still needs to resolve some outstanding issues, we are pleased to have reached agreement with Hynix on a number of terms. Our goal as always is to seek fair compensation for the use of our patented inventions, and this agreement will be a significant milestone in pursuit of that goal,” said Thomas Lavelle, senior vice president and general counsel at Rambus.
