Hynix Ordered to Take a Lien to Satisfy Patent Judgment
While patent litigation between "real" companies may be waning, possibly due to the challenging economy (as Chun notes below in his article about Samsung and Sandisk), damages resulting from semiconductor patent litigation cases remain nonetheless real and substantial. In a recent decision, a California district court ordered the South Korean memory maker Hynix to pay chip designer Rambus about $397 million for infringing on Rambus' DRAM patents.
Several newspapers and analysts commented that Rambus may have won a "hollow" judgment, fearing that Hynix may go bankrupt before being able to comply with the judgment. However, the district court appears to have taken into account the difficult (and definitely uncertain) economy in identifying Hynix's potential inability to act on the judgment. The district court seems to have addressed the apprehension of a "hollow" judgment by ordering Hynix to take a lien against its manufacturing facilities in South Korea for a substantial portion of the judgment. The court also ordered Hynix to pay ongoing royalties for infringing the patents to an escrow account (until an upper court rules on an appeal filed by Hynix), rather than allowing the damages to accrue for the duration of the appeal. Financial markets responded favorably to the court's decision -- Rambus' share jumped 5.17% subsequent to the court ordering Hynix to take the lien and pay ongoing royalties. This case perhaps illustrates how courts are responding to the tough economy in protecting the rights of patent holders.
