GLG News by Hardware / Computer Patent Experts: Lawyers

After two years of waiting, SanDisk (SNDK) just won its appeal on the question of whether the firm is allowed to preemptively sue STMicro over 14 of that firm's patents. The win opens an intriguing possibility: moving the now-pending jury trial from patent-happy Texas to the more reasonable confines...

Neither IGT nor BYI issued a press release, but last Thursday the Nevada court issued an important ruling on each firm's several motions for summary judgment. The outcome favored BYI and was for me a bit of a surprise.  

The FTC just announced its decision on Rambus' several requests for clarifications and adjustments to the pending order on SDRAM and DDR1. The new decision favors Rambus on several levels: it confirms that the low regulated rates only apply forward-looking, and it establishes an escrow to protect Rambus...

Friday night came the announcement I had predicted just an hour earlier: a much broader settlement of litigation between Broadcom and Qualcomm. Here, I run through the cases that remain, and identify the ones that now should take center stage.

It seems that almost daily we hear that one or another patent case involving QCOM is settling out. But the news from Thursday might be of substantially more importance; this settlement might really matter.  

Microsoft's high-profile attack on Google is surely a PR move, but that does not change the underlying reality: Google's Book Search project is illegal, and Google is ultimately going to have to pay for the infringement it commits.

Qualcomm and Broadcom announced last week that they had settled disputes involving four patents. But these are minor settlements and they mainly clear the way for both firms to focus on the bigger battles ahead.

Last week, QCOM and BRCM both released strange press releases describing a January court ruling.  BRCM pitched it as a big win for BRCM's WCDMA chip business. QCOM claimed BRCM was off base. The reality, no surprise, lies somewhere between.

The ITC announced today that it will delay the final appeal in the patent case involving BRCM and QCOM, adding another hearing in March before reaching a decision in May.  But make no mistake: delay or not, the odds of a meaningful exclusion order are terribly low.

Investors have so far missed the big implication of today's FTC announcement: yes, Rambus has been ordered to charge low rates for SDRAM and DDR1; but the FTC did not regulate at all the price for DDR2.  That is a huge win for Rambus.  DDR2 is the future, and Rambus' patents on point are now...