SanDisk Corporation filed three massive patent infringement actions against 25 companies that manufacture, sell and import USB flash drives, CompactFlash cards, multimedia cards, MP3/media players and other removable flash storage products today in a move that could has massive repercussions for the industry.
The company, which filed in the United States District Court in the Western District of Wisconsin and in the United States International Trade Commission ("ITC"), alleges that variety of SanDisk system-level patents are routinely being violated by competitors and seeks an injunction against the sale of thousands of consumer devices that fall under that purview.
"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," says 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."
SanDisk has named the following companies in the suit: ACP-EP Memory, A-Data, Apacer, Behavior Computer (d/b/a Emprex), Buffalo, Chipsbank, Corsair Memory, Dane-Elec, Edge, Imation/Memorex, Interactive Media (d/b/a Kanguru), Kaser, Kingston, LG Electronics, Phison Electronics, PNY, PQI, Silicon Motion, Skymedi, Transcend, TSR (d/b/a T.One), USBest, Verbatim, Welldone Company and Zotek/Zodata (d/b/a Huke)
SanDisk is the original inventor of flash storage cards and is one of the world's largest suppliers of flash data storage card products, using its patented, high-density flash memory and controller technology. SanDisk is headquartered in Milpitas, Calif., and has operations worldwide, with more than half its sales outside the United States. For more information, visit www.sandisk.com.