Earlier this month documents were issued by a Delaware court dismissing a case Round Rock had brought against Taiwanese company HTC. Round Rock had originally initiated the action on 1st October 2010, claiming infringement of five patents.

via Has HTC become the latest big-tech company to do a deal with Micron NPE?

While Joff speculates that HTC has become the latest licensee of the Micron spin-out, I’m significantly more skeptical.

First, in the two weeks since this dismissal, there’s been no announcement or press release issued by the publicly traded smartphone maker about a settlement, license or other agreement resolving the litigation.  When major litigation threatens a company, it’s often customary (and in many instances, mandatory) for companies to announce when litigation has been neutralized.  Also, getting HTC signed up as a licensee would be a “big feather” as Joff notes, so, again, given that the dismissal is  a public record, why no announcement from Round Rock?

Second, the dismissal is “without prejudice” which means that Round Rock is free to re-file its claims at a future date.  Granted, it is entirely possible that HTC paid Round Rock for a license that would provide an absolute defense to a future infringement lawsuit.  However, most lawyers prefer the safer “belt-and-suspenders” practice, and secure a dismissal with prejudice along with a license, covenant not to sue and release of claims.   (In reality, this is more of a belt, suspenders, duct tape and superglue approach).

Finally, the existence of a settlement agreement resolving the litigation is typically mentioned in the dismissal papers being filed with the court.  This alerts the judge to the fact that both sides have resolved their differences, and the dispute isn’t likely to reappear in the future.

So why the paperwork? What they may have done is reach a separate agreement that terminates the “hostile” nature of the relationship between the parties without actually allocating any rights under the Round Rock patents.

Earlier this year, efforts by Chinese manufacturer Huawei to acquire patents were thwarted by a US committee on foreign investment (Cfius) citing security concerns.  This news could signal difficulty for foreign firms desiring to acquire and enforce US patents.  Recall also that, about a week before the stipulated dismissal, HTC announced a $75 Million purchase of an 80 patent portfolio related to wireless and 4G technologies.

Meanwhile, Round Rock’s business is patent licensing and monetization, getting its start by acquiring a large chunk of Micron’s IP portfolio.  A foreign company like HTC might be better served in its monetization plans if cooperation of US-based patent holders like Round Rock are at its disposal.

Observers of the smartphone IP space would be wise to keep an eye on transactional news involving the HTC patent purchase and any new Round Rock acquisition and licensing efforts.

Related Articles

• UPDATE: Ocean Tomo/Round Rock Patent “Covenant Auction (gametimeip.com)
• The New Patent Licensing Regime (gametimeip.com)
• HTC Buys Up Wireless Patents (patentcalls.com)

Pound weakens in response to proposed Portugal austerity measures.

Good morning. Equity markets were slightly firmer overnight with a slew of mixed corporate and economic news driving movements. New Home Sales data for February came in below forecasts with 250,000 recorded. The market had factored in 288,000. Crude Inventories reached 2.1 million. Initial Claims and Durable Orders data will be released on Thursday in the US. Across the Atlantic, European debt woes continue to influence the currencies, with the market concerned over the Portuguese austerity vote. The Prime Minister resigned after the EU voted not to implement extensive austerity on the country. The move signalled political uncertainty in the country. Japanese officials on Wednesday confirmed that the earthquake and tsunami had cost the country $308 billion. Traders speculated that the rebuilding phase would require significant natural resources, pushing the mining sector higher in trade.

On the equity market front, the S&P500 rose 3 points with Micron Technology driving gains in the Semi Conductor space. Reporting a better than expected revenue figure for the period, the company’s net income fell to $72 million. Software provider Red Hat rose 10% after the company announced revenues of $244 million for the period. Analysts estimated $235 million in revenues.

On the currency front, the Pound reacted to news that budget forecasts were lower than expected. Revising growth levels and projections for the year, the Bank of England highlighted the risk of debt contagion in Europe and World geopolitical events. Markets pushed sterling lower during the announcement, with the currency touching 1.6252. Strengthening slightly against the greenback, the Japanese Yen tracked market sentiment for much of the session. The flight to safe haven currencies continued to put pressure on the US dollar midsession. Recent intervention measures from the G7 countries also spurred further speculation of a double dip recession in the global economy. Traders were cautious during the session, with many watching the nuclear crisis eagerly. The forecasted weakness in GDP and growth estimates during the session temporarily led to a spike in the pair. The USDJPY traded at 80.96.

First of all, it appears that no company currently in litigation with Round Rock is eligible to bid on the covenants.  Second, one of the covenants will be limited to five years, while the rest will be perpetual. Presumably, this would include a representation that Round Rock would bind downstream owners of the patents with the same promises.

However, a covenant is an enforceable promise (a/k/a contract), not a license, so the devil is always in the details.  There’s also apparently going to be an approval process to bid on the covenants, as they come with various restrictions preventing handset makers and semiconductor companies from bidding on certain lots:

• COVENANT #1 – Any buyer who is: (i) NOT IN litigation with Round Rock; (ii) NOT a semiconductor company, AND (iii) NOT a handset / computer company, is eligible to buy a 5-YEAR covenant not to sue.

• COVENANT #2 – Any buyer who is: (i) NOT IN litigation with Round Rock; (ii) NOT a semiconductor company, AND (iii) NOT a handset / computer company, is eligible to buy a PERPETUAL covenant not to sue.

• COVENANT #3 – Any buyer who is: (i) NOT IN litigation with Round Rock, AND (ii) NOT a semiconductor company is eligible to buy a PERPETUAL covenant not to sue.

• COVENANT #4 – Any buyer who is: (i) NOT IN litigation with Round Rock, AND (ii) NOT a handset / computer company is eligible to buy a PERPETUAL covenant not to sue.

Via NPE invites bids for covenants not to sue over former Micron patents at ICAP OT auction

The five-year covenant strikes me as the strangest lot available. First of all, how much could 5 year’s worth of freedom from former Micron patents be worth for non-semiconductor/non handset companies ?  Second of all, aren’t you just setting yourself up as a sitting duck? Five years from now, Round Rock will have had time to go through at least two rounds of litigation.  If they survive, the patents will be approaching the “bullet proof” stage, not to mention the fact that you helped validate the patents along the way.

Losing out on a bid also presents a serious risk since bidders are required to register in advance, including the real-party-in-interest for any proxy bidders. Post auction, Round Rock could end up getting from ICAP a convenient list of additional licensing targets outside of its current enforcement vertical, which makes me curious about of what kind of arrangement Round Rock has ICAP.

Related Articles

• Patent Broker Ocean Tomo Auctioning Massive Collection Of Covenants (gametimeip.com)
• Are ICAP Ocean Tomo’s Patents “Low End”? (gametimeip.com)

Image via Wikipedia

This is kind of silly. For the price of $284 120GB drive is a hard sell for most people. When laptops (get information to fix a laptop here) are a few hundred dollars more with a standard drive, I doubt the average person would say “Hey let me install and use this.” Intel needs to focus on reducing price to make it more popular. Other good SSD options include this 1TB or this Micron.

Image via Wikipedia

Micron releases half-terabyte laptop SSDs Flash Memory Macworld.  Isn’t progress wonderful?

USDJPY>> The Japanese Yen continued to head towards dangerous levels, with the pair trading at 82.41 on Thursday. Hitting a 15 year high against the greenback, Finance Ministry Official Igarashi noted the importance of stabilisation of the yen, with traders speculating that the BOJ may look to asset purchasing measures rather than further currency sales to stem the rise.

AUDUSD>> AUDUSD was considerably stronger during the trade day on Thursday with better than expected jobs data boosting currency sentiment. Trading at a 27 year high against the USD, the pair headed towards parity with an intraday level at 0.9895. Jobs data indicated a rise of 49,500 for the month, with forecasts in the range of 15,000 – 25,000. Buoyant metal prices and positive growth forecasts from China also helped in sending the AUD higher.

EURUSD>> Economists noted on Thursday the growing concern from the ECB over expensive borrowing costs in the credit markets. Traders were initial cautious in early trade with the pair trending before risk appetite pushed the EURUSD to 1.3970. Dragged up by a stronger yen and aussie dollar, most of the major currencies rose against the greenback, with traders citing continual economic concern and possible softening in Non Farm Payrolls tomorrow night.

USDCHF>> Keeping in line with its safe haven counterpart the yen, the swiss franc rose against the US dollar. A market wide sell off in the greenback was spurred by speculation that the Fed and US government would implement further quantitative easing, to accommodate weaker economic conditions. The USDCHF traded at 0.9591 at lunch.

GBPUSD>>Sterling rose during Thursday trade, with the Bank of England announcing that monetary policy would not change. Economists forecast that the BOE would keep rates at 0.5%. Manufacturing data however exceed expectations with an acceleration in growth. The GBPUSD was trading at 1.5992 just before lunch.

USDCAD>>The Canadian dollar strengthened considerably on Thursday with the currency pair continuing to track its resource buddy, the AUD. Falling to 1.0097, the USDCAD followed other major currencies, with the greenback stuttering after Fed Reserve comments.

In its complaint in U.S. District Court in California, Oracle says its Sun Microsystems business bought billions of dollars worth of microchips from 1998 to 2002.

Oracle, based in Redwood Shores, bought Sun in February.

Oracle says Boise-based Micron was among conspirators including South Korea’s Hynix and Samsung and Germany’s Infineon that artificially inflated microchip prices above what Sun should have paid, had the companies actually competed.

The lawsuit says five companies have agreed to a nearly $1 billion fine and that Micron was granted amnesty from a U.S.  Department of Justice criminal prosecution because it cooperated.

Micron also escaped a fine in a European case in May because it brought the case to regulators there.

(© 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

* Sterling strengthens after decline in UK retail sales slows (Reuters America)

The pound consolidated its gains against the dollar after a Confederation of British Industry survey revealed that high street sales fell at a much slower pace than expected, though retailers are shedding staff at a record pace.

* In these dire times, labour rigidity is a recipe for disaster (The Financial Times)

Sir, Paul De Grauwe, in his commentary on the benefits of rigidities in wages, prices and employment contracts ( Flexibility is out: now we see rigiditys virtues , February 23) errs in presuming that most if not all companies have the cash resources to sustain some prolonged period of operational rigidity, thereby laying the burden of these circuit breakers squarely at the foot of the empl…

* Saudi inflation to slide says Sama (Gulf Daily News)

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s central bank yesterday said it expects inflation to further decline this and next month after it hit a 12-month low last month, due mainly to a slower rise in home rents and drops in steel and food prices.

* The Economic Need for Stable Policies, Not a Stimulus [Extended version] (Scientific American)

The U.S. political-economic system gives evidence of a phenomenon known as instrument instability. Policy makers at the Federal Reserve and the White House are attempting to use highly imperfect monetary and fiscal policies to stabilize the national economy. The result, however, has been ever-more desperate swings in economic policies in the attempt to prevent recessions that cannot be fully …

* Bmi cuts routes between Heathrow and the North (Oliver Smith, Telegraph)

Bmi is to cut its services between Heathrow airport and the North of England after 40 years of continuous service

* Budget angst bubbles up at forecast (Rick Karlin, Times Union)

ALBANY Lawmakers on Monday got a jump on an annual budget ritual: the Consensus Forecasting Conference, in which both Democrats and Republicans bring in experts to try and reach a consensus on how rosy or in this case, gloomy the coming budget-building process will be.

* Ahead of the Bell: Micron Technology cutbacks

NEW YORK — Micron Technology Inc.’s decision to cut as many as 2,000 jobs and scale back memory chip production is a “prudent” move, a Deutsche Bank analyst said.

* Consumer confidence plummets to new low in Feb. (Anne D’ Innocenzio)

NEW YORK — Americans’ already battered confidence in the economy went into free fall in February, sinking to new lows as consumers grow more fearful over massive job cuts and shrinking retirement accounts.

* Bank of England gives clearest indication of zero interest rates (Edmund Conway, Telegraph)

Andrew Sentance, a member of the Bank’s Money Policy Committee, said that “more stimulus” would be needed to avert the risk of Britain sliding into deflation – with prices falling as they did in 1930s America.

* Rate-setter makes case for ‘printing money’ (Times Online)

A member of the Bank of Englands monetary policy committee today made the case for quantitative easing, the controversial measure to boost the economy by “printing money” to increase the money supply.

These layoffs are in addition to a 15% reduction, affecting about 2,850 employees, announced last fall as the company stopped production of some NAND flash-memory chips, which are used to store data in iPods, digital cameras and other devices.

Source: CNNMoney

Attendees:
1. Steve Appleton Micron Technology
2. David Barger Jet Blue
3. Greg Brown Motorola
4. John Bryson Edison International
5. David Cote Honeywell
6. Debra Lee BET Holdings
7. Anne Mulcahy Xerox
8. Sam Palmisano IBM
9. Antonio Perez Eastman Kodak
10. Eric Schmidt Google
11. Michael Splinter Applied Materials
12. Wendell Weeks Corning
13. Ron Williams Aetna

Attendees:
1. Steve Appleton Micron Technology
2. David Barger Jet Blue
3. Greg Brown Motorola
4. John Bryson Edison International
5. David Cote Honeywell
6. Debra Lee BET Holdings
7. Anne Mulcahy Xerox
8. Sam Palmisano IBM
9. Antonio Perez Eastman Kodak
10. Eric Schmidt Google
11. Michael Splinter Applied Materials
12. Wendell Weeks Corning
13. Ron Williams Aetna

Don’t fire people on a Friday.

Don’t fire people late in the day.

Don’t make any layoff announcement until everyone affected has been informed.

Do offer to provide a good reference.

Fire people before Thanksgiving or after New Years, but not between.

Don’t piece-meal your chopping.

Don’t fire anyone by email.

We have an article in this spring’s issue of MIT Sloan Management Review that reflects upon and updates our article we published a decade ago:  “How do Downsize Your Company without Downsizing Morale.”  For  additional ideas and case studies on how to downsize or lay off people properly, be sure to read our book, Trust is Everything.

If you’d like a copy of our previous MIT Sloan Management Review article, Preserving Employee Morale During Downsizing, please contact us.

Aneil

Below is a listing of downsizings that I have been keeping track of over the past several months, using data published by the Wall Street Journal and New York Times.  The list does not include the 2,000 job cuts that GM announced today as well.  It is by no means an exhaustive list, but it gives an idea of the horrific toll that downsizing is having in the U.S. and abroad:

Otter possibly drove a spike through the heart of those assertions – literally – by pounding a spike into a Western Ada County field to symbolically kick off a visionary plan to make a Silicon Valley-style development.  ESTech ( Eagle Star Technology Corridor) would be a business park on nearly 80,000 acres of land that would house a variety of technological companies and be a local effort by government in both Eagle and Star. A group of businesses seeking to make Idaho a destination for tech industries hatched the idea and Otter has signed on in support.

Otter said there is money in the Department of Commerce to help pay for infrastructure like water and sewage, which is also good to hear. There are several obstacles, however. Idaho Power has trouble providing much new electricity and there will be transportation issues to work out as well. Given the current state of the credit markets, financing will be hard to come by. If the governor is too far ahead of the Legislature on this issue, which is very likely, he might face some opposition; it isn’t clear to me, however, how much support he would need from the Legislature.

From an urban planning perspective, it would be better to use the many vacant commercial properties in the area, but that may not be possible due to the need to concentrate the industry.

The vision would also diversify Idaho’s technology industry, which has been heavy on manufacturing and lighter on software development.  But with Micron and HP shedding jobs, diversification is essential.

The average selling price of DRAM chips fell an unusually large 34% in the past three months

This according to Micron Technology, which reported its fiscal first-quarter earnings on Wednesday.

During September, October and November, the average selling price for DRAM memory chips – which are installed in computers – fell an unusually large 34 percent, Micron CFO Ronald Foster said.

Average prices for NAND flash used in digital cameras and iPods dropped an also substantial 24 percent, Foster told analysts on a conference call.

However, in the past five days the company has seen an “uptick” in pricing, he said. This suggests computer makers and distributors don’t have large inventories and need to order again to build products.

Foster did not say whether he expects the rise to continue.

The DRAMeXchange reported Tuesday that the price for a 1Gb DDR2 chip fell another 7 percent last week, capping a quarter that has seen a price plunge of up to 34 percent.

“This obviously shows that DRAM vendors are dealing with severe inventory pressure and oversupply still remains,” the market monitor said.

In the usually more stable contract market, prices during the second half of November also hit historic lows, with the average price of 1GB and 2GB DDR2 chips down about 10 percent. “The contract price may keep plunging but with limited range,” DRAMeXchange said.

With low-cost netbooks making up a larger share of computer shipments, the average DRAM content per machine may fall, worsening the environment and delaying the recover of prices, the group said.

DRAM is made by companies such as Micron Technology, Samsung and Elpida.

DRAM prices continue falling

While Micron’s SSD technology is aimed at high-end applications that would run on Fibre Channel SANs, such as transactional databases or streaming video, consumer-grade computers using SSDs directly connected to a PCIe bus with four lanes (x4 slots) could soon achieve similar results.

Physical PCIe slots may contain from one to 32 lanes of data. Currently, PCIe Generation 1 offers 250MB/sec. throughput per lane. The second generation of PCIe is expected out next year and will offer twice the throughput, or 500MB/sec.

Blow up of 34-nanometer NAND chip

The companies said the manufacturing milestone came ahead of schedule and that they expect their Lehi, Utah, plant to be more than 50 percent converted to the technology by the end of the year.

The technique makes circuits that are 34 billionths of a meter in size. Intel is presently making its flagship computer microprocessors with 45-nanometer equipment.

The new production lines enable the companies to product 32-gigabit NAND chips with large-capacity storage. NAND memory is used in devices such as digital cameras and music players, such as the iPod.

While memory is less complex to make than computer processors and therefore more easier to produce with tinier dimensions, the adoption of 34-nanometer production suggests Moore’s Law remains on track for the next several years. The law postulates that the number of integrated circuits on a chip double every two years.

Micron Technology anunciou que está preparando discos SSD com velocidades de leitura muito mais altas que as atuais, até 250 MB por segundo, superando de longe os outros modelos atuais, que ficam nos 90 MB por segundo.

A velocidade de gravação não fica atrás, com impressionantes 100 MB por segundo. O fabricante promete que o acesso aos dados é dez vezes mais rápido que os discos rígidos convencionais, mas seria necessário realizar provas reais para comprovar. De momento, nos fica a notícia de que a Micron está trabalhando para melhorar a velocidade, algo necessário para popularizá-lo, em conjunto com a sua redução de preço e aumento de capacidade.

Falando de capacidade, teremos vários modelos disponíveis. Os Micron P200 está focado no mercado profissional e oferece capacidades entre 16 e 128 GB, com tamanho de 2.5″. Os Micron C200 é a versão doméstica, com tamanho de 1.8″, focado no mercado de ultraportáteis e UMPCs, com capacidades de até 128 GB, mas também estarão disponíveis em 2.5″ com até 256 GB.

Os discos SSD se propagam, pouco a pouco, como dignos sucessores dos discos rígidos, e em dois anos é provável que comecem a substití-los em muitos equipamentos, pois oferecem capacidades e rendimentos comparáveis em relação ao seu preço.

Via Xataka

The NAND business is in a state of oversupply and competitors are beating each other’s brains out to keep their fabs – and their cost models – running according to plan.  The problem is that you can’t discount your way to profitability.

While the carnage continues, Intel’s CEO Paul Otellini came forward with a few comments that display why his firm is one best companies in the world when it comes to pricing.  Speaking to analysts Otellini:

• Reaffirmed his belief that Intel makes the “best transistors in the world”
• Stated unequivocally that they will fix the memory business
• Promised to pursue higher value applications for memory such as solid-state drives and to become less reliant on the commodity part of the business
• Reevaluate Intel’s investment strategy if the business doesn’t show signs of improvement

There’s an old adage that I learned from working with clients in the chemical industry…market share and capacity share will equalize over time.  Given this, showering any and all customers with desperation discounts does nothing but increase the rate at which value bleeds out of an industry.  Price competition is a fool’s game and it seems that everyone in the NAND business likes to play.

Intel gets this and that is why they are – well Intel.  And everyone else in the business is left trying to survive self-inflicted wounds.