Opinion ID: 806686
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Reexamination Proceedings

Text: In 2009, the district court entered final judgment finding that Hynix infringed claims 24 and 33 of the ’918 patent. See Final Judgment, Hynix Semiconductor, Inc. v. IN RE RAMBUS 5 Rambus Inc., No. 00-cv-20905 (N.D. Cal. Mar. 10, 2009), ECF No. 3911 (“Hynix”) (not discussing claim 18). Shortly thereafter Hynix sought ex parte reexamination of claims 18, 24, and 33 of the ’918 Patent. During reexamination, the examiner construed the term “memory device” broadly as a “device[] that allows for the electronic storage and retrieval of information.” Ex parte Rambus, Inc., Reexamination No. 90/010,420, slip op. at 19 (B.P.A.I. Jan. 12, 2011) (“Board Op.”). Under this construction, the examiner found the ’918 Patent’s “memory device” analogous to the memory module disclosed in the iAPX Manual, which consists of a passive array of chips (“Array”) and a memory control unit (“MCU”). The examiner confirmed claims 24 and 33, but with the iAPX memory module satisfying the memory device element, he rejected claim 18 as anticipated by the iAPX Manual. Rambus appealed the examiner’s rejection to the Board. On appeal, the Board defined the key issue as “whether the memory ‘device’ recited in claim 18 reads on the memory ‘module’ disclosed in the iAPX Manual.” Board Op. at 3. Figure 1-2 from the iAPX Manual depicts the iAPX 432 Interconnect Topology as: 6 IN RE RAMBUS The Board then framed “[t]he central dispute [as] whether the claimed term ‘device’ is limited to a single ‘chip’ embodiment or also embraces a ‘memory stick’ [or transceiver device] embodiment as disclosed in the ’918 patent.” Id. Accordingly, the Board’s analysis focused on the specification’s teaching that “[i]n general, each teaching of this invention which refers to a memory device can be practiced using a transceiver device and one or more memory devices.” ’918 Patent col. 20 ll. 5-8. Rambus pointed to the prosecution history, specification, and expert declarations to support its contention that a skilled artisan would interpret a memory device as a single chip component. The Board agreed with the district court in Micron that “claim 18 does not recite a chip device and the patentee must live with the broader memory device term recited.” The Board also agreed that a memory device as used in the ’918 Patent cannot be defined by the exact number of chips it is composed of—but that number does not have to be restricted to one. The Board also noted that the memory stick embodiment does not appear to have a CPU or microprocessor. The Board then cited to Rambus’ expert declaration that the MCU in the iAPX Manual merely receives and translates instructions from the Bus Interface Unit (“BIU”) and concluded that the MCU is not a microprocessor or CPU. Therefore, the Board equated the iAPX “memory module” with the ’918 Patent’s “memory device” and affirmed the examiner’s rejection of claim 18 as anticipated by the iAPX Manual. Rambus timely appealed. This court has jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §1295(a)(4)(A).