RMBS: Is Quanta Relevant?

Implications: Earlier this month, Judge Whyte announced that he would hold a hearing in late August to evaluate whether the QUANTA decision out of the Supreme Court has any impact on the pending Hynix remedy.  Hynix's lawyers think it does.  I disagree.

Analysis: Just when everyone was ready to finally hear what the remedy will be in the long-running Hynix/Rambus patent litigation, a new delay came to the forefront: Judge Whyte decided that he would hold a hearing to learn more about the Supreme Court's QUANTA decision.  Hynix's lawyers had pressed for the hearing, urging Judge Whyte to alter his damages analysis and the scope of any injunction.  Rambus' team, by contrast, has tried to argue that QUANTA is not relevant.

My take is that the QUANTA fight will delay Judge Whyte from announcing his verdict, but will not otherwise matter.  The reason is simple.  QUANTA was a case about what happens when a patent holder sells his patent rights to firm A, and then firm A sells those rights to firm B.  The legal question is whether firm B has to get a license from the patent holder, or whether instead firm B benefits from the license already purchased by firm A.

Does that apply to Rambus?  I don't see how.  There isn't a transaction of the sort where Rambus sells to (say) Intel and then Intel sells to (say) Hynix.  Instead, Rambus works in a market where Intel and Hynix might both sell to some common customer, but Intel does not directly sell to Hynix.  Without that sort of direct-line relationship between a licensee and a potential infringer, there is no QUANTA issue.

Again, the QUANTA fight does end up mattering because it likely will delay the remedy in the Hynix case.  Instead of ruling in July, my suspicion is that Judge Whyte will now not rule until September.  On the merits, however, QUANTA looks to me like a non-starter.  Judge Whyte will likely see that, too, when the parties more fully brief the case in anticipation of the August hearing.