Case Studies
Rambus, Inc. v. Micron Technology, Inc.

By: Guy Grogan, G. Christopher Ritter, Chris Sizemore, Jerry Williams! & Jeremy Young
- Venue: Superior Court of California (San Francisco, CA);
- Court Name: Superior Court of California (San Francisco, CA);
- Services Provided: Trial Graphics;
- Industry: Antitrust
Rambus, Inc., alleged Micron Technology, Inc., and Hynix Semiconductor, Inc., colluded with other DRAM manufacturers by fixing prices and favoring the competing DRAM technology, DDR, so as to prevent Rambus’s proprietary RDRAM technology from becoming the standard for main PC memory. Micron countered that the failure of the market to adopt RDRAM was instead driven by the technology’s larger chip size and associated higher costs, propensity to run hotter than DDR, and the Rambus proprietary business model, which included steep licensing costs. If found liable, Micron could have faced potential damages ranging from $4.3 billion to $12 billion.