Rambus played dirty in the market for PC memory chips and blames its competitors for the consequences of its own bad choices, a lawyer for Hynix said in court.

Making an opening statement in a California state court on Tuesday, Hynix lawyer Kenneth Nissly said RDRAM memory technology developed by Rambus had design and technical problems that kept it from ever becoming widely adopted.

In a long-running antitrust lawsuit, Rambus accuses chipmakers Micron and Hynix of restricting the availability of RDRAM chips, a kind of DRAM memory, starting in the 1990s in favor of chips with their own technology.

You heard a lot yesterday accusing Hynix of being part of a conspiracy against Rambus. It was not, Nissly told jurors. As far back as 1997, Rambus was secretly planning to sue the DRAM industry.

Rambus claims up to $4.38 billion in lost profits.

Much of Rambus' income has come from patent licensing, and it has initiated litigation against a range of tech companies. Winning its legal battles makes it easier for Rambus to negotiate additional licensing arrangements.

The case in Superior Court of the State of California, County of San Francisco is Rambus Inc. v. Micron Technology Inc. et al, 04-431105.

(Reporting by Noel Randewich, editing by Matthew Lewis)