WASHINGTON -- Rambus Inc.'s basic Direct RDRAM design violated Infineon Technologies AG patents, the German chipmaker charged in a countersuit filed today in federal district court in Richmond, Va.
Two months ago, Rambus had sued Infineon for allegedly infringing the Mountain View, Calif., intellectual property developer's synchronous DRAM patents.
Infineon denied those charges and went after Rambus' core DirectRDRAM design as well. The Munich-based Infineon, spun off from
Siemens AG in 1999, charged that Rambus used Infineon patents
in its RDRAM designs that were passed to all other Rambus
licensees. Infineon is citing pre-existing invention and art for both synchronous DRAMs and Direct RDRAM before Rambus ever applied for its patents.
Separately, the litigation between Hyundai Electronics Industries Co. and Rambus in San Jose federal court has been assigned to a mediator. Formal mediation sessions are slated for early next year.