Hynix Settles to Pay Rambus Royalties

Rambus has scored itself yet another royalty haul as Hynix has agreed to pay up.

Hynix has settled with Rambus on terms with what is being called a “compulsory license,” or in other words, pay or else. As detailed in the press release: the parties have agreed to royalty rates of 1 percent for SDR SDRAM and 4.25 percent for DDR SDRAM memory devices for net sales after January 31, 2009 and before April 18, 2010. The latter rate applies to DDR, DDR2, DDR3, GDDR, GDDR2 and GDDR3 SDRAM devices, as well as DDR SGRAM devices.

Rambus has also proposed final judgment of $349 million in damages, plus pre-judgment interest of approximately $48 million, which it has been submitted to the U.S. District Court for Northern District of California.

“While the Court still needs to resolve some outstanding issues, we are pleased to have reached agreement with Hynix on a number of terms,” said Thomas Lavelle, senior vice president and general counsel at Rambus. “Our goal as always is to seek fair compensation for the use of our patented inventions, and this agreement will be a significant milestone in pursuit of that goal.”

Rambus is no stranger to the legal side of the industry, and while one chapter is closing, another moves into its place. The memory company is currently also tangoing with Nvidia, which is being sued for its memory controllers for SDR, DDR, DDR2, DDR3, GDDR, and GDDR3 SDRAM.

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Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.