Rambus Buys Patents for LED, LCD Technologies

Rambus adds more patents to its stable.

We all know Rambus best for its RDRAM technologies, but today the company is branching out further.

Rambus, claiming itself as one of the world’s premier technology licensing companies, today announced it has acquired technology and a portfolio of advanced lighting and optoelectronics patents from Global Lighting Technologies Inc. (GLT) for $26 million. Through this agreement, Rambus has acquired 84 issued patents.

A key application area for the acquired innovations is LED backlighting of LCD, which are increasingly pervasive in LCD displays for computers, mobile phones, gaming systems and HDTVs.

Twelve people will join Rambus from GLT including Jeff Parker, GLT’s co-founder, former chief executive officer and principal inventor. Most of those joining from GLT will form a new Lighting Technology Division led by Mr. Parker.

"Rambus’ long history of creating and licensing leadership solutions makes it the ideal home for this advanced lighting and optoelectronics technology," said Jeff Parker, senior vice president Lighting Technology Division of Rambus. "There are tremendous business and technical synergies created by this acquisition. Rambus’ extensive system and integration expertise greatly complements our new LED-based solutions for bright, thin and vibrant displays."

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There are 45 Comments. B

Top Comments

39

anonymous@guest , December 15, 2009 6:58 AM

I wonder who they're going to sue for patent infringement first. They didn't buy those patents to make a product with...
37

apache_lives , December 15, 2009 7:04 AM

fuck off rambus
37

mavroxur , December 15, 2009 6:58 AM

Sigh...the patent trolls are gearing up for more lawsuits it looks like....

Other Comments

39

anonymous@guest , December 15, 2009 6:58 AM

I wonder who they're going to sue for patent infringement first. They didn't buy those patents to make a product with...
37

mavroxur , December 15, 2009 6:58 AM

Sigh...the patent trolls are gearing up for more lawsuits it looks like....
37

apache_lives , December 15, 2009 7:04 AM

fuck off rambus
16

Shadow703793 , December 15, 2009 7:08 AM

apache_livesfuck off rambus

and.... d!3.

Here I though RDRAM killed off Rambus.... lol.
25

apache_lives , December 15, 2009 7:10 AM

and people say Intel is a bad company...
30

simple_inhibition , December 15, 2009 7:27 AM

next weeks article headline : "RAMBUS STIKES AGAIN, LCD makers sued for 1 billion (places pinky finger on corner of mouth) dollars"
1

IzzyCraft , December 15, 2009 7:57 AM

Bad move rambus LCD tv is playing with the big boys not just pushing over some decent sized ram companies. Samsung and LG have been at each other necks for quite some time dealing with TV's. At least i think it's samsung and LG
11

anonymous@guest , December 15, 2009 8:03 AM

I hope the greedy buggers choke off and die!
16

pocketdrummer , December 15, 2009 8:29 AM

Too bad you can't sue for being a D-bag company. How is this company staying afloat!? Someone should buy them out and fire every last one of their employees.... then sue individually for sucking at life.
13

mavroxur , December 15, 2009 8:48 AM

pocketdrummerToo bad you can't sue for being a D-bag company. How is this company staying afloat!? Someone should buy them out and fire every last one of their employees.... then sue individually for sucking at life.

They're staying afloat by making money off other companies thru alleged copyright infringment lawsuits. Scum? Yep!
21

melvis72 , December 15, 2009 8:51 AM

RAMBUS....Working on sueing you and your friends at a court near you!!!
14

matt_b , December 15, 2009 9:03 AM

Why can't this company just DIE! These guys are a complete cancer to the rest of the business world.
1

enforcer22 , December 15, 2009 9:11 AM

pocketdrummerToo bad you can't sue for being a D-bag company. How is this company staying afloat!? Someone should buy them out and fire every last one of their employees.... then sue individually for sucking at life.

they stay afloat two ways..

#1 licencing. anytime someone wants to use something rambus patents they need a licence from rambus..

#2 thier recent venture what mavroxur said.. sad but true.

so they have now got alot of patents for alot of things they will not make and sit on until someone slips up and they can sue them.. i just dont see rambus making things anymore other then court fines.
0

liquidsnake718 , December 15, 2009 9:15 AM

This just means Samsung and LG will end up paying RAMBUS for their technologies. I do hope RAMBUS knows what they are doing as LCDs are going to die in a few years as LED and OLED and even paper thin and flexable SCREENS will start to appear in 2-4years on the market. Thus the patents are rather in their mature state as the technology has matured albeit is still growing..... It(LCDs) has already become the standard and not a luxury anymore as it was when I got my first one in 2005. Times have changed and tech just gets better, smaller, and cheaper!
11

darkknight22 , December 15, 2009 9:31 AM

Anyone know how to kill a Zombie?
11

christop , December 15, 2009 10:41 AM

Great these dicks are going to cause prices to go up...
3

JonathanDeane , December 15, 2009 10:46 AM

I used to be a supporter of them back when they made RDRAM (before it came out and cost like 5X the price of normal RAM...) but since that time they have done nothing.

Rambus you where doing so good for a time what happened?
3

kato128 , December 15, 2009 11:13 AM

My biggest question is, who is selling patents to these people? Their rep precedes them so I'd have thought one of the giants would have stepped up to outbid them for this patent.
0

Socnom , December 15, 2009 11:35 AM

Buy your TVs, Monitors, Laptops, Netbooks, Phones, etc. now, before the lawsuits start flying and the manufactures pass on the 'savings' to the consumers!
-5

anonymous@guest , December 15, 2009 12:03 PM

You all realize, they bought the patents to collect royalties, not to go out of their way to sue people.

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