Intellectual property
SanDisk has complained to the US International Trade Commission (ITC) seeking an investigation as to whether NAND flash memory chips manufactured by STMicroelectronics and subsidiaries and sold in the USA infringe SanDisk's patent No.5,172,338. SanDisk hopes that the ITC will bar ST's NAND flash memory chips from sale in the USA.
In the North California district court, legal proceedings have been begun involving the same patent as well as seeking an order declaring that SanDisk's products do not infringe 14 US patents assigned to STMicroelectronics and/or that such patents are invalid.
E Earle Thompson, SanDisk's chief intellectual property counsel, comments: "The ITC confirmed the validity of our 5,172,338 patent in 1997 in our action against Samsung Electronics."