May 9, 2001 – Richmond, VA – It’s yet more bad news for Rambus Inc., Los Altos, CA, as a jury found the company guilty of fraud with regard to Rambus’ participation with JEDEC, as charged by German firm Infineon.

According to the terms of the judgment, Rambus was found not guilty of all other charges but must pay punitive damages of $3.5 million to Infineon. That sum may yet be reduced, under Virginia law.

This jury judgment comes hot on the heels of another from last Friday, in which US District Judge Robert Payne threw out Rambus’ patent-infringement claims against Infineon, contending that the US firm had failed to prove its case.

Rambus said today it planned to immediately appeal the verdict of fraud, and will file post-trial briefs with the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia to set aside today’s verdict. Rambus has also promised to appeal the dismissal of its case against Infineon.

“We are obviously disappointed in today’s verdict and will immediately appeal,” said Geoff Tate, CEO of Rambus. “The innovations at issue are Rambus inventions, and the evidence presented at trial made it clear that Infineon knew all along that they were Rambus inventions.

“Rambus will continue to fight to protect its intellectual property. As we have long maintained, it is our right, as well as our obligation to Rambus shareholders, to take all appropriate measures to protect our patented innovations. We will vigorously defend our patent rights against any company that attempts to use our innovations without compensation.”

Infineon had no comment.