On Tuesday, Micron Technology agreed to settle with Rambus regarding the former's use of the latter's DRAM memory patents. Micron is set to pay Rambus up to $280 million over a seven-year period in exchange for the former's use of any of Rambus patent's for the manufacturing of specified integrated circuit products. The royalties had been capped at $10 million per quarter during the initial term, said the two companies in a joint statement. Moreover, the two companies have agreed to settle claims on outstanding patent and antitrust concerns. The agreement will also cover Micron subsidiary Elpida. The Japan-based firm was acquired by Micron early this year.
According to a CNET report, Elpida is a result of a consolidation of the memory chip businesses of NEC's, Hitachi's, and Mitsubishi's. The DRAM products of Elpida are used in various purposes, most notably in Apple's iPad and iPhone.
Rambus' general counsel Jae Kim said in a conference call, "The terms of the Elpida agreement were not disclosed." Kim also disclosed that the agreement with Micron replaces what was initially agreed by Elpida directly with Rambus.
Rambus Chief Executive Officer Ron Black added during the same conference call, "This was our last major outstanding litigation. Elpida has fantastic mobile technologies...they've made components that were designed with some of the interfaces that we used, for instance, with Sony."
Rambus, noted CNET, pursued every memory chip industry in the last 14 years. One of its biggest litigation was with Samsung, of which the latter settled for $900 million in 2010. Rambus' aggressive strategy to protect its patent had earned cash for the company as well. Currently, the company receives around $12 million per quarter from Hynix as agreed in their recent settlement that was announced in June these years. CNET added in its report that Rambus intendes to continue with its quest to protect its patents as it claimed that SDRAM and subsequent DDR memory types in the market has infringed the company's patents as DRAM standards evolved.
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