Rambus Settles Chip Dispute With SK Hynix
Rambus Inc. said South Korea’s SK Hynix Inc. has agreed to pay $240 million in order to settle a patent dispute over memory-chip technology that has dragged on since 2000.
The U.S. company said the settlement underscores its new strategy to minimize litigation and work more collaboratively with users of its technology.
Ron Black, who was appointed chief executive of Rambus a year ago, said the company is determined to distance itself from another breed of licensing companies—sometimes called “patent trolls” by their critics—that buy and sell patents but don’t make inventions of their own. Rambus, by contrast, licenses technology developed by its own engineers.