SanDisk Files Patent Claims Against 25 Companies

Flash memory leader SanDisk has filed patent infringement suits against no fewer than 25 companies in the US International Trade Commission, as well as in Federal Court.

Though public statements have yet to reveal which of SanDisk's over 780 U.S-issued patents (and over 400 foreign-issued patents) the companies are infringing upon, SanDisk says it is enforcing its patents to be fair to third parties who legitimately license from them.

The Milpitas, CA company has filed suit against the following companies: ACP-EP Memory, A-Data, Apacer, Behavior Computer (Emprex,) Buffalo, Chipsbank, Corsair Memory, Dane-Elec, Edge, Imation/Memorex, Interactive Media (Kanguru,) Kaser, Kingston, LG, Phison, PNY, PQI, Silicon Motion, Skymedi, Transcend, TSR (T.One,) USBest, Verbatim, Welldone, and Zotek/Zodata (Huke).

Some of the companies on this list are already involved in three cases against SanDisk, as there are also two cases open in the United States District Court in the Western district of Wisconsin. The first of the cases is for the infringement of the same five system-level patents involved in the ITC action, the second includes an additional two patents not involved.

In what is effectively a lawsuit against all its competitors, SanDisk seeks not only damages and a permanent injunction in the federal cases, but also a ban on importation of the products. A successful case for SanDisk could mean a substantial decrease in market rivalry for the memory leader.