Kenneth L. Nissly

When 2011 started, Nissly's client - memory chip manufacturer Hynix Semiconductor Inc. - was facing a $397 million judgment after losing a patent infringement case and was facing exposure of $3.95 billion in a related antitrust case.

By the end of the year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit wiped the judgment out. And Sunnyvale-based chip designer Rambus Inc. lost its high-stakes antitrust case against Hynix and co-defendant Micron Technology Inc. in a jury trial in San Francisco County Superior Court.

During a legal battle that has stretched out for years, Nissly has repeatedly argued that Rambus should not get any money because it shredded documents in violation of its duty to preserve them in advance of planned litigation against the memory chip manufacturers.

The Federal Circuit, which held two arguments on the issue before reaching a decision last May, sent the Hynix case back to U.S. District Judge Ronald Whyte, who previously ruled that the document destruction did not interfere with the South Korean company's ability to defend itself. Micron Technology Inc. v. Rambus Inc., 2009-1263 (Fed. Cir., filed May 13, 2011).

Nissly, who helped write the Hynix brief to the Federal Circuit, now has to get to work as the company's lead trial counsel persuading Whyte that Rambus acted in bad faith.

In the meantime, Hynix's bond covering the cost of the verdict was returned. "I asked if I could take the rest of the year off and management said no," Nissly joked.

But there is no question about the outcome of Rambus' price fixing claims. Although it took nearly two months of jury deliberations, the case ended with a 9-3 majority verdict for the defense. Rambus Inc. v. Micron Technology Inc., 04-431105 (S.F. Super. Ct., filed May 5, 2004).

Nissly said he also has succeeded in getting several Rambus patents revoked in a number of patent and court actions in Europe.

- CRAIG ANDERSON

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