Court Decision in Patent Case Lifts Rambus Shares

A U.S. appeals court Friday denied a request by Infineon Technologies for a full court rehearing of a fraud case against Rambus Inc. over a patent dispute, pushing Rambus shares up nearly 10%.

At issue in the Infineon case are potentially billions of dollars of royalties Rambus is seeking from makers of memory chips.

Germany’s Infineon and other chip makers have accused Los Altos, Calif.-based Rambus of tricking them into adopting technologies for which it held or was seeking patents.

After Rambus sued Infineon for alleged patent infringement, Infineon countersued, claiming Rambus fraudulently obtained patented ideas in the course of an industry standard-setting process in the early 1990s.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in January tossed out the charges against Rambus and sent Rambus’ patent case back to the lower court.

The lower court had denied Rambus’ claims against Infineon, and a jury had found Rambus guilty of fraud and awarded Infineon $7 million in damages.

Rambus shares rose $1.38 to $15.75 on Nasdaq.