SanDisk lodges patent action against 25 flash competitors

Stan Beer
Saturday, 27 October 2007 07:34

Your IT - Home IT

Flash storage pioneer SanDisk has loadged a patent infringement lawsuit against 25 companies, many based in Asia, claiming that they infringe on patents it holds for flash card technology. The suit, filed in the US District  Court in Wisconson and the US International Trade Commission, against some of the biggest names in the Flash storage business and is designed to force them pay licensing fees.

SanDisk, founded in 1988, is the original inventor of Flash storage cards and currently has approximately 780 issued US patents, and more than 400 foreign patents. It claims to be the only company, worldwide, that has the rights to both manufacture and sell every major flash card format, including CompactFlash, SD, miniSD, microSD, MultiMediaCard, Reduced Size MultiMediaCard, Memory Stick PRO and related Memory Stick products, xD-Picture Card and USB flash drives.

The list of companies named in the lawsuit includes some of the most recognizable names in the storage business including LG Electronics, Imation/Memorex, Verbatim, Kingston, and Silicon Motion Technology, among others.

SanDisk has indicated that its aim is to force the named companies to license its technology or to stop their products being imported into the US.

“These actions demonstrate SanDisk’s long-term commitment to enforcing its patents, both to protect our investment in research and development by obtaining a fair return on that investment, and out of fairness to third-parties that participate in our patent licensing program,” said E. Earle Thompson, Chief Intellectual Property Counsel at SanDisk.

“Our goal is to resolve these matters by offering the defendants the opportunity to participate in our patent licensing program for card and system technology. Otherwise, we will aggressively pursue these actions, seeking a prompt judicial resolution awarding damages, obtaining injunctive relief and banning importation of infringing product.”