MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--Rambus Inc. here today announced it has expanded its legal battle with Hitachi Ltd. by filing a patent infringement suit in Germany. Rambus wants to halt the importation, sale, and manufacturing of Hitachi synchronous DRAMs and double data rate (DDR) memories, which the Mountain View company claims violates its European patents.
In January, Rambus filed a U.S. lawsuit against Hitachi, accusing the Japanese chip supplier of violating eight U.S. patents in memory devices and methods of controlling those chips (see Jan. 21 story). A case was also filed with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) in an attempt to stop Hitachi from selling SDRAMs and DDR SDRAMs in the United States (see March 23 story).
Hitachi then fired back at Rambus in federal court, claiming that the company was violating U.S. antitrust laws in its attempt to stop the sale of competing SDRAM and DDR memories (see March 24 story).
Rambus maintained that it transferred technology to Hitachi for the sole purpose of enabling the company to manufacture and sell memories and logic products that are compatible with its Rambus DRAM specification. The German lawsuit filed, filed yesterday in District Court in Mannheim, does not relate toRambus-compatible memory and logic products, according to the Mountain View company.
