Federal Judge Robert Payne isn't expected to decide until next month whether Rambus Inc.'s synchronous DRAM patents are unenforceable.
After the jury in the patent infringement case against Infineon Technologies AG found Rambus had committed fraud, the German chip maker filed a motion to nullify the Rambus patents.
The two sides are setting up a schedule for filing briefs and a possible court hearing on the patent unenforceability motion.
Court sources believe that process may take several weeks, and Judge Payne won't issue his ruling on the motion until early June.
The patent enforcement question only affects Infineon in the present case, but would certainly be cited as precedent by Micron Technology and Hynix Semiconductor which are in litigation with Rambus over the same synchronous patents.
Rambus and Infineon attorneys also agreed that Virginia state law limits the jury award of punitive damages against Rambus to $350,000. The jury originally had assessed $3.5 million in punitive damages against Rambus.
Infineon is already absolved of any infringement of the Rambus synchronous patents because Judge Payne ruled the German firm's SDRAMs didn't have a multiplex memory bus line he said was required under the Rambus patents.
Micron has already cited that decision as a precedent in its own patent suit against Rambus in the Wilmington, Del., federal court.
Rambus has said it will appeal Judge Payne's dimissal of its patent infringement claims against Infineon, as well as the jury's verdict of fraud for the firm's failure to disclose its patent applications while a member of the industry JEDEC committee drafting an open SDRAM standard.
