Rambus (RMBS)

[Nicdagreek]

nic, it's your business and I respect your right to privacy, but after all is said and done will you explain your M.O. relative to Rambus?

Its been asked several times if I work for someone adverse to Rambus; I do NOT. In fact, it amuses me to no end how many suggest I work for MU, when in reality I have been opposed to them on more than one occasion. However, I have dealt with Rambus in the past, so I know them that way. Also, the community of IP lawyers is fairly small, and I hear about them all the time through this network.

So I am intimately familiar with how they operate. In the irony of ironies, another IP lawyer asked me a few weeks back if I would do some work for them in procuring patents; given what has gone on here, I had to turn them down.

With that said, Rambus the company is not that interesting to me. What IS interesting is the fact that they continue to generate a number of key legal milestones in my profession, and I would be foolish not to pay attention to those. A lot of their legal activities have direct relationship and bearing on similar projects for my clients. Thus, keeping track of Rambus THE LITIGANT is really just part and parcel of free continuing legal education. In this respect I can't stress enough that noone here (or anywhere else) has picked up on or seems to appreciate the attack Rambus is under at the PTO level: check out this link sometime:

http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/com/speeches/06-15.htm

I attended this hearing. To hear the PTO officials speak is frightening. They all think that the Kingsdown case is an abberation, and companies like Rambus are criminals. They are going to implement new rules in just a few months that would basically outlaw everything Rambus has done over the past few years (write claims after the patent is filed to cover a competitor product).

So there is some real relevance here to my practice. Even if you despise me and take nothing else away from this message, I strongly urge you to get everyone in the Rambus camp to start calling their representatives asap, or the PTO is going to run right over the little guy. The MUs and Intels of the world don't care, since they cross license everything and don't bother perfecting patents to the claim level. Plus they'd love to rid the world of so-called patent trolls.

There is also the financial aspect, but that, too, is small relative to my other assets and interests. I think it was Cal who said that housing in California has beaten any other kind of investment, and I agree with that 100%. While the past few months have been good, the market in CA has been great for 10 years, and we just sold a property a few months ago. So nothing about Rambus the stock is going to change my life.

Over time I developed relationships with many of the posters on MF, including Cor (god rest his soul), and that is part of the reason I still post as well. Its gone from a passing interest, to a legal lesson, to a social club at this point.

I don't know if that answers your question, but its as good as I can do right now.

Da Greek