Micron Technology, the largest U.S. maker of computer-memory chips, pressed claims of document destruction against semiconductor designer Rambus as a trial began in federal court. Micron sued Rambus in 2000, alleging it tried to control the market for so-called dynamic random access memory chips and wants U.S. District Judge Sue L. Robinson in Wilmington, Del., to rule it doesn't infringe eight Rambus patents and that the patents are unenforceable. The trial is the latest in a series of challenges involving Rambus's royalty demands on its patents; so far, chip makers have contended the company wrongly obtained the patents on an industry standard.
"Rambus destroyed millions of documents...[that] it knew or should have known were important for litigation," Micron lawyer William C. Price told Robinson in his opening statement Thursday in the first phase of the trial. Unsurprisingly, Rambus lawyer Gregory P. Stone denied the accusation. "The guiding principle of our document-retention policy was to look for things to keep," Stone said in his opening statement. Only redundant and unnecessary documents were destroyed, and the company was "overflowing with paper" it didn't need to keep.
News source: SiliconValley.com
