Mar 12, 2002 Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against SanDisk Corp. over several patents related to flash data storage.
In a statement, Sunnyvale, Calif.-based SanDisk indicated it believes the suit is a preemptive strike by Samsung to protect flash recipes in the event an existing patent cross-license agreement is not renewed.
"We believe this lawsuit is a tactical move on Samsung's part in advance of the upcoming expiration in August 2002 of their patent cross-license with SanDisk," said Charles Van Orden, vice president and general counsel for SanDisk. "We intend to vigorously defend against this action."
Samsung, based in South Korea, filed the action a week ago in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. The lawsuit alleges that SanDisk infringes Samsung's United States patents 5473563, 5514889, 5546341 and 5642309, and seeks a preliminary and permanent injunction against unnamed SanDisk products as well as damages, attorney's fees and cost of the lawsuit.
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., with 1999 sales revenue of US$22.8 billion is a world leader in the electronics industry. Headquartered in Korea, the company has operations in about 50 countries with 54,000 employees worldwide. The company consists of three main business units: Digital Media, Semiconductors and Information & Communications Businesses.
