Rambus shares surge after pretrial patent ruling

U.S. District Judge Ronald Whyte ruled Tuesday that several major chip companies violated certain elements of computer memory patents held by Rambus. Whyte denied a request for summary judgment on other elements of the patent dispute, which is set for trial on Jan. 22.

But Capstone Investments analyst Jeff Schreiner said the decision bodes well for Rambus in a suit that could lead to significant royalties for the company.

In an interview, Schreiner said "obviously this is not a 'show me the money' type ruling." But he said by stripping out some of the more technical aspects of the case, the decision makes the rest of the company's argument easier to put to a jury.

Schreiner estimates the companies involved in the suit represented about 60 percent of 2007 sales for the dynamic random access memory, or DRAM, chips Rambus is suing over.

They include South Korea-based Samsung Electronics Co. and Hynix Semiconductor, Boise, Taiwan-based Nanya Technology Corp. and Idaho-based Inc., Micron Technology Inc.

Rambus shares rose $1.51, or 22 percent, to $8.46, compared with a 52-week high of $26.41.