SK Hynix, the world’s second-largest chip supplier, on Thursday said it would appeal a recent U.S. court order reducing its payment to Rambus, a U.S.-based designer of high-speed memory chips.

The two firms are currently enmeshed in a patent litigation. SK Hynix had hoped for the payment to be thrown out entirely.

The order said the payment should be slashed by $250 million, as Rambus had obstructed related evidence.

The South Korean chipmaker said it was planning an appeal as soon as the court handed down the final ruling, explaining it was difficult to accept the order since another U.S. court had lifted a similar payment imposed on Micron Technology entirely.

“The order, when considering the unlawfulness of Rambus’ action, did not meet our expectations. Further, we find that a breach of trust may occur as two different federal courts have reached such conflicting rulings on an identical issue,” SK Hynix said, announcing its plans to appeal.

In February, a federal court in Delaware barred Rambus from using a dozen of its patents to demand royalties from Micron Technology on the grounds that Rambus had improperly destroyed documents tied to the litigation between the two companies.

Earlier in 2009, a California state federal court had found no fault with Rambus’ actions and consequently called for SK Hynix to pay $400 million to Rambus in compensation, in addition to ongoing royalties for the patent.

However, in an appeals court in 2011, the case was sent back to the trial court on the grounds that Rambus had deliberately destroyed the evidence.

A final legal ruling will be reached, SK Hynix said, within the next two or three weeks.

By Kim Ji-hyun (jemmie@heraldcorp.com)