The U.S. District Court of Delaware in the patent infringement matter with Micron Technology has found that Rambus cannot pursue its claims against Micron due to spoliation.

In her opinion, the Honorable Sue L. Robinson determined that Rambus executed its document retention policy during a time when it anticipated litigation.

"We respectfully, but strongly, disagree with this opinion, and at the appropriate juncture plan to appeal," said Tom Lavelle, senior vice president and general counsel at Rambus. "This opinion is highly inconsistent with the findings of the Court in the Northern District of California which looked at the same conduct and found there was nothing improper with our document retention practices. We are confident in the strength of our position and will continue to vigorously pursue fair compensation for the use of our patented inventions."

The case with Micron was originally filed by Micron against Rambus in August 2000. The case was split into three separate phases with the first phase concerning allegations of unclean hands and spoliation. Cases are still pending against Hynix, Nanya, Micron, and Samsung in the Northern District of California. These cases concern patents, some of which were at suit in Delaware, as well as additional patents not part of that matter. Additionally, a trial on Rambus' claims that Samsung, Hynix and Micron illegally fixed DRAM prices and output to eliminate Rambus' proprietary RDRAM product from the market is scheduled for trial in San Francisco Superior Court in March.

Rambus management will discuss this decision during a special conference call today at 2:00 p.m. PST.