Rambus’ Last Key Patent Invalidated By U.S. Government

In a bit of shocking news, the last of three patents owned by Rambus (known as the Barth patents) have been invalidated by the U.S. Government. The patents themselves pertain to memory chips that are used in personal computers and are considered to be the most valuable of Rambus’ patents and intellectual property. The appeals board of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) declared the last patent invalid on January 24th, the previous two were declared invalid in September 2011. Rambus’ trouble doesn’t end there, the company’s stock dropped 60% in the weeks after it lost a $4 billion antitrust lawsuit against Micron Technology Inc and Hynix Semiconductor Inc back in November 2011. While Rambus can still appeal the latest decision from the PTO it will most likely be of no help. “We’re evaluating our options,” is all company spokeswoman Linda Ashmore would say. It seems Rambus is hurting from these serious blows to its patent portfolio, and surely the many companies that have been sued by Rambus because of these patents will be happy to see this turn of events.