Sandisk files patent infringment lawsuit againts 25 companies

Washington (DC) - Sandisk has filed lawsuits against LG Electronics and 24 others over patents it owns concerning MP3 players and USB storage devices.

Sandisk, the nationwide leader in flash memory cards, has filed two separate lawsuits in a federal Wisconsin court. In total, it claims seven of its patents have been infringed by the 25 companies involved. All patents involved relate in some way to Sandisk’s technology in producing USB flash drives and flash memory-based MP3 players.

The vast majority of the defendants are based overseas, so Sandisk has also filed a complaint with the International Trade Commission (ITC), seeking a judgment that would prevent them from importing the offending products to the US.

The two lawsuits are to differentiate between the five patents involved in the ITC complaints and the two other patents not involved. Other defendants include Kingston, Apacer, PNY, Verbatim, and Phison.

The list of 25 companies essentially targets every major manufacturer of flash memory products, many of which are based overseas but all of which have US operations.

Sandisk says it is looking to settle with these companies by striking up licensing agreements with them, having them pay to legally use the patents involved in the lawsuits. "Otherwise, we will aggressively pursue these actions, seeking a prompt judicial resolution awarding damages, obtaining injunctive relief and banning importation of infringing product," said Sandisk’s head counsel for intellectual property E. Earle Thompson.

Sandisk has filed multiple lawsuits in the past over patent infringements, including successful battles against Lexar, Ritek, Pretec, and Memorex. The chip making giant has hundreds of patents relating to every form of flash media card and device-built-in flash data storage.