SanDisk Sues 25 Companies for Patent Infringement

dnormant writes "Suits have been filed against 25 companies by the SanDisk corporation this week, as the company looks to stop businesses from shipping products it alleges are infringing on its work. SanDisk has filed suits against everyone from MP3 player manufacturers to USB hard drive creators. The list of defendants is staggering, and MacWorld notes if Sandisk succeeds it could have repercussions outside of the courtroom. 'The company filed two lawsuits in the U.S. District Court in the Western District of Wisconsin, one alleging the infringement of five patents in the ITC complaint, and another one including two additional patents not involved in the ITC action. The court and ITC complaints could affect the prices and availability of products made by companies targeted in the suit if SanDisk wins and the companies are barred from importing products into the U.S.'"

Comments

Almost content-less article

[tygt]

Unfortunately TFA has nearly zero content other than what the synopsis states. There is no mention of which patents are involved, any reaction by the companies being sued, and no statement given as to WTF it's all about.

Re:Almost content-less article

[pravuil]

The way it looks it probably is the problem. From their corporate section they claim the following:

SanDisk currently has approximately 780 issued U.S. patents, and more than 400 foreign patents, and is the only company, worldwide, that has the rights to both manufacture and sell every major flash card format , including CompactFlash®, SD(TM), miniSD(TM), microSD(TM), MultiMediaCard(TM), Reduced Size MultiMediaCard (RS-MMC(TM) ), Memory Stick PRO(TM) and related Memory Stick® products, xD-Picture Card(TM) and USB flash drives.

Their claim seems pretty broad. It's hard to tell what's going on until they present their argument.

Re:Almost content-less article

[tepples]

Was it obvious to combine them? we're talking 1993 here. The PCMCIA defined PC Card, including a standardized ATA-like interface to solid-state memory cards, in 1991. Reserving spare sectors for use when existing sectors have failed had been standard practice in ATA hard disks by 1993. What elements do you suggest were combined non-obviously?

Funny thing is...

[Anonymous Coward]

...that around here (Sweden) SanDisk has always been considered as a cheapish manifacturer of questionable quality.

Re:Funny thing is...

[ericrost]

Not just around Sweden. Same holds true in the US.

Re:Funny thing is...

[KeepQuiet]

I agree and they have the crappiest customer service ever. I had a sandisk mp3 player which died for no apparent reason. I emailed customer service that saying that I cannot turn on the player. They replied "Can you please turn on the player and tell me what version number do you see?" Note to self: avoid Sandisk.

So hard to read the summary without crying.

[Actually, I do RTFA]

MacWorld notes if Sandisk succeeds it could have repercussions outside of the courtroom.

Any case that does not have repercussions outside of the courtroom is worthless. What point is the submitter trying to make?

Press Release

[bazald]

The official press release is here:
http://www.sandisk.com/Corporate/PressRoom/PressReleases/PressRelease.aspx?ID=4025

Is it public what patents they are suing over yet? There seem to be no real details anywhere...

The List

[urcreepyneighbor]

SanDisk is suing: ACP-EP Memory, A-Data, Apacer, Behavior Computer (d/b/a Emprex), Buffalo, Chipsbank, Corsair Memory, Dane-Elec, Edge, Imation/Memorex, Interactive Media (d/b/aKanguru), Kaser, Kingston, LG Electronics, Phison Electronics, PNY, PQI, Silicon Motion, Skymedi, Transcend, TSR (d/b/a T.One), USBest, Verbatim, Welldone Company, and Zotek/Zodata (d/b/a Huke).

Re:The List

[oyenstikker]

Come on dude, make a list.

• ACP-EP Memory
• A-Data
• Apacer
• Behavior Computer (d/b/a Emprex)
• Buffalo
• Chipsbank
• Corsair Memory
• Dane-Elec
• Edge
• Imation/Memorex
• Interactive Media (d/b/aKanguru)
• Kaser
• Kingston
• LG Electronics
• Phison Electronics
• PNY
• PQI
• Silicon Motion
• Skymedi
• Transcend, TSR (d/b/a T.One), USBest
• Verbatim
• Welldone Company
• Zotek/Zodata (d/b/a Huke)
  

Re:They waited ALL these years....

[TheNinjaroach]

Doesn't patent-enforcement and claims for damages, etc, require ongoing, active enforcement? No, the active enforcement requirement applies to trademarks, not to patents.