SanDisk recently announced that they filed two lawsuits against 25 card
vendors and controller suppliers, alleging that they infringed upon five of their patents. The company also filed a complaint with the
International Trade Commission (ITC), asking that they ban importation of infringing products into the U.S.
SanDisk
Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK) today announced the filing of three patent infringement actions against 25 companies that manufacture, sell
and import USB flash drives, CompactFlash cards, multimedia cards, MP3/media players and/or other removable flash storage products. The
actions, filed in the United States District Court in the Western District of Wisconsin and in the United States International Trade
Commission (“ITC”), allege that the defendants have infringed various SanDisk system-level patents, and seek damages and a permanent
injunction in the federal court actions, as well as a permanent exclusion order from the ITC banning importation of the products into the
United States.
“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.”
If you'd like to read more, SanDisk's entire press
release can be found here.
