Mistake or not, legal actions from Rambus will likely become a fixture in the semiconductor world. The DDR lawsuits and settlements involve nine patents, Tate said. The company, however, has close to 100 memory patents on file. Intel and a series of memory companies have already formed a new coalition to devise a future memory standard for 2003 and beyond. Contributing to the controversy is how patent offices operate.
Companies file patent applications in secret.
Claims based on these filings, however, often only come to light years later. Overheated expectations Rambus has also suffered from overheated expectations. With Samsung settling, the only major memory companies that remain at legal odds over the issue are Hyundai, Micron and Infineon. All three are locked in lawsuits with Rambus. Rambus memory is still expensive, but it is coming down in price.