Judge Rips Rambus for Shredding Documents in Nvidia Case

Posted 10/07/2011 at 7:15am | by Paul Lilly

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Rambus found itself on the hot seat when a judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Court drilled into the company for destroying documents that could have weakened its patent infringement case against Nvidia. Rambus admitted to shredding documents, but chalked it up to business as usual. Furthermore, an attorney for Rambus said they provided all the documents that were requested of them. That's when Judge Kathleen O'Malley, one of three presiding over the case, tore into Rambus.

"You admit you have no idea what was destroyed! You have no record of what was destroyed!," the judge said, according to Reuters. Later on during the trial, the judge again referenced the document dump and took a swipe at Rambus' motives in doing so.

"Remember, you saved the ones that helped you and destroyed the ones that hurt you," the judge said.

This has been an ongoing dispute between Rambus and Nvidia, as well as several other companies Rambus has accused of patent infringement. The U.S. International Trade Commission ruled in 2010 that Nvidia was guilty of infringing three patents belonging to Rambus, but that was before anyone knew about Rambus destroying documents. That little nugget came out in separate cases involving Micron and Hynix, both of which were sent back to lower courts for further consideration.