A U.S. appeals court on Friday denied a request by Infineon Technologies AG IFXGn.DE for a full court rehearing of a fraud case against Rambus Inc. RMBS.O over a patent dispute, pushing Rambus shares up more than 10 percent.

Rambus shares closed up nearly 10 percent, or $1.38 at $15.75 on Nasdaq, bucking a wider trend among semiconductor stocks that were mostly lower following a warning by Europe's STMicroelectronics STM.PA that its first-quarter earnings would be below expectations.

The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index closed down about 2.5 percent at 311.4.

At issue in the Infineon case are potentially billions of dollars of royalties Rambus is seeking from makers of memory chips used in consumer electronics.

Germany's Infineon and other chipmakers have accused Rambus of tricking them into adopting technologies for which it held or was seeking patents.

After Rambus sued Infineon for patent infringement, Infineon filed a counter-suit claiming Rambus fraudulently obtained patented ideas in the course of an industry standards setting process in the early 1990s.

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