Rambus Patent Suit Dismissed

A judge in Virginia on Tuesday threw out Samsung Electronics Co.’s patent lawsuit against computer chip designer Rambus Inc., allowing Rambus to focus its legal strategy on cases in California.

U.S. District Judge Robert Payne in Richmond granted Rambus’ request to dismiss the suit after it said it no longer planned to seek royalties from Samsung for the four patents.

Rambus’ action removes the litigation from Payne’s court, where the company in March lost a key ruling over the same patents against Infineon Technologies. Payne said he would block Rambus from enforcing the patents against Infineon as punishment for Rambus’ destroying documents sought in the case. Rambus faced the same outcome in the Samsung case, the judge said.

Rambus backed away from the fight with Samsung after the judge refused to transfer the suit to California and said he would use the document evidence. Payne said he would hold a hearing Dec. 15 to determine whether Rambus should pay Samsung’s legal fees.

Rambus, based in Los Altos, Calif., designs chips used in computers and home electronics.

Semiconductor maker Samsung licenses Rambus chips that it makes for products such as PlayStation, Sony Corp.’s best-selling games console.

Rambus sued South Korea-based Samsung in June, accusing it of patent infringement and antitrust violations, after license renewal talks broke down. Rambus is in legal battles with five other companies over royalties from the $26-billion memory chip market.

Rambus’ California suits include actions against Samsung and Hynix Semiconductor Inc.