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  • Rambus files ITC complaint against just about everyone, wants to stop sale of just about everything

    by 
    Tim Stevens
    Tim Stevens
    12.02.2010

    Rambus, which modestly describes itself as "one of the world's premier technology licensing companies," has meekly asked the International Trade Commission to block import and sale of an amazing array of products from companies including Broadcom, Freescale, LSI, MediaTek, NVIDIA, and STMicroelectronics -- the latter of which was sued by Caltech only yesterday. But wait, there's more! Rambus also indicates that other "companies whose products incorporate the accused semiconductor products" have also been named, selling things like "personal computers, workstations, servers, routers, mobile phones and other handheld devices, set-top boxes, Blu-ray players, motherboards, plug-in cards, hard drives and modems." That should just about cover 95% of what's available at your local electronics store, and certainly puts our holiday wish lists in legal limbo.This is a follow-up to earlier disputes involving the company, particularly with NVIDIA, which will continue via patent infringement lawsuits filed in US District Court against those corporate entities mentioned above. Beyond that, Rambus is hoping that the ITC stops import and sale of any and all infringing products post-haste. That seems awfully drastic, but for its part Rambus indicates it has been trying with all its might to negotiate licenses with these supposedly dirty dealers and that it was told "the only way they would get serious is if we sued them." So, place your bets because here we go.[Thanks, Antonio]