The fraud counterclaims are the only major issues remaining in the patent infringement case filed by Infineon last August. Federal Judge Robert Payne earlier threw out all 57 infringement claims filed by Rambus against Infineon. Judge Payne also dismissed Infineon's antitrust claims against Rambus, but allowed its three fraud claims to go to the seven-member jury.

The jury will consider Infineon's claims that Rambus committed "actual" and "constructive" fraud in its dealings with Infineon through the Joint Electron Device Engineering Council (Jedec) committee that was developing an industry standard for SDRAMs. A third count before the jury alleges that Rambus violated civil racketeering statutes through a scheme that relied on mail and wire fraud.

In closing arguments on Tuesday, Rambus denied all of Infineon's fraud allegations and said it was only trying to protect its intellectual property from competitors at the Jedec meetings. It called the racketeering charge a case of "piling on" by Infineon.

Rambus attorneys also sought to portray Infineon and its memory industry allies as bullies who were in cahoots to isolate Rambus during the Jedec proceedings. "All we've done is try to protect our technology from cherry picking" by Jedec members, Rambus attorney David Monahan told jurors. He added that the message sent by memory makers was, "Don't invent anything when you're dealing with these giants. They'll crush you."

With patent claims dismissed by Judge Payne, the Jedec deliberations between 1991 and 1996 have moved center stage in the bitter case. Infineon has contended that Rambus failed to disclose its patent applications to Jedec members and used the meetings to fine tune its applications. Only after Infineon and other memory makers invested millions in production did Rambus assert its SDRAM patent claims, Infineon argued.

Infineon lead attorney John Desmarais pounded away on this theme on Tuesday, alleging that Rambus was the only company that failed to disclose its patent holdings during Jedec meetings. "The issue is disclosure, the issue is fair play," Desmarais told jurors. "Rambus did not give fair notice" of its SDRAM patents.

If the federal jury finds for Infineon, it must then decide whether to award damages. Infineon is seeking punitive damages as a way to send a message to the IC industry that fraudulent patent claims will be punished.