As the original inventor of flash storage cards and is one of the world’s largest suppliers of flash data storage card products, SanDisk has sought legal action against 25 companies for patent enfringement on a rather wide net of products that include “USB flash drives, CompactFlash cards, multimedia cards, MP3/media players and/or other removable flash storage products.”

Among the major defendants in the two cases are PNY, Imation/Memorex, LG Electronics (a major player in cellphones and sd card camcorders), Transcend, and Verbatim.

“These actions demonstrate SanDisk’s long-term commitment to enforcing its patents, both to protect our investment in research and development by obtaining a fair return on that investment, and out of fairness to third-parties that participate in our patent licensing program,” said E. Earle Thompson, Chief Intellectual Property Counsel at SanDisk. “Our goal is to resolve these matters by offering the defendants the opportunity to participate in our patent licensing program for card and system technology. Otherwise, we will aggressively pursue these actions, seeking a prompt judicial resolution awarding damages, obtaining injunctive relief and banning importation of infringing product.”

Sandisk filed in federal court of Wisconsin (which is odd considering they’re based in California) and with the United States International Trade Commission (“ITC”). The suits allege that the defendants have infringed various SanDisk system-level patents. Along with seeking damages the lawsuit also asks for a permanent injunction that would also ban importation of the products into the United States.

Source: Imaging Resource