U.S. District Judge Sue Robinson in Delaware has once again punished the chip designer Rambus for shredding documents back in 1998 and 1999, shortly before it declared a patent war against much of the semiconductor industry.

You don't often hear complaints about working for Apple, Google, Intel, Lucasfilm, Adobe, Intuit, or Pixar. But according to plaintiffs lawyers at Lieff Cabraser, Berger & Montague, and Grant & Eisenhofer, employees at the companies were the victims of a conspiracy to suppress their salaries and keep them tied down at their jobs. And on Wednesday, a judge in San Jose ruled that the lawyers had come up with enough evidence to allow their case to move forward.