Sandisk gets a second run at patent enforcement

FLASH MAKER SANDISK has been given another chance to protect its patents after a ruling by the US International Trade Commission.

The ITC is taking another look at part of a ruling the California chip shop lost back in April in which it claimed that 25 companies had infringed up to seven of its patents or refused to pay licensing fees.

All but four of those companies have since been removed from the action, having settled, been offered consent orders, or defaulted.

But Sandisk is still gunning for the remaining makers of memory cards, USB drives and media players including Kingston and Dane-Elec. If Sandisk prevails, it could impose US import bans.

The patent spat appears to be about the way solid state memory updates pages of data within component blocks, which is all a bit beyond us.

Sandisk raked in nearly $200 million in licensing fees in the first half of this year, which represents nearly 15 per cent of its entire revenue. This goes some way toward explaining why the company has been throwing its legal toys out of the pram ever since October 2001. µ

L'Inq
Bloomberg