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.'"

Note who is not being sued....

[jdgeorge]

A list of companies NOT named might be interesting, too. Among them are:
Apple
Samsung
Micron/Lexar
Sony

Each of these seems to be a major player in these markets....

What deals (if any) do these guys have with SanDisk so they aren't getting sued?

Details?

[Bent Mind]

The second link [yahoo.com] in the summery offers a bit more information than the first link [macworld.com]. However, both are missing details. It sounds like SanDisk is suing anyone who uses or interfaces with flash memory. The quote in the article seemed strange to me:

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.

I thought they were suppose to attempt to collect license fees before they sued.

The Yahoo/PC Magazine article seems to be cut off at the end. It stops at "for infringement of five SanDisk patents, including:".

They waited ALL these years....

[davidsyes]

Seems to me they FSCK'd up...

Doesn't patent-enforcement and claims for damages, etc, require ongoing, active enforcement?

Seems to me they waited all these years, found out they need a MAJOR cash infusion, and they see all these companies as an income stream. Kinda like lying in wait (yeh, the "victims" are aware there MAY be a trap around the bend, but are hoping no one is lurking...), hoping a court will rule in their favor.

Looks like the "staggering(ly)" long list is a clue they are gold-digging.

Hardware patents

[Isaac-Lew]

Have any of the the patent-bashers on here stopped to think that maybe *some* patents are valid (especially hardware)? After all, this is a company making actual physical products, not a patent troll or someone patenting software or a business product.

SanDisk bought m-Systems, now sues

[postbigbang]

Patent litigation is the last gasp of the shnook. Time to change the batter (CEO).

They couldn't make their MP3 players do very well, the flash drive market is in no-margin-land, and so how do you boost revenue. Hey, Ernie-- we got any patents from that Israeli company we bought a coupla years ago? There's gotta be some money in that stuff.......

They have patents of their own?

[IvyKing]

I suspect that Apple, Samsung, Micron and Sony have quite a few patents of their own that could be used against SanDisk if SanDisk sued them, and supect the companies they are suing don't have much of a patent portfolio.

Another possibility is that the companies not being sued have cross-licensing agreements in place with SanDisk.

What Goes Around Comes Around

[segedunum]

I'm not defending SanDisk, but given that they were dubiously halted from showing a bunch of MP3 players in Germany not too long ago, it's probably not unreasonable for them (and their lawyers) to think "Well, maybe it could work for us as well!":

"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," said E. Earle Thompson, chief intellectual property counsel at SanDisk, in a statement.

I also find it humorously ironic that if this works, it could result in the US missing out and not being able to get certain products, or at least needlessly paying more for them.

Just uninstall U3

[Billly Gates]

http://www.mydigitallife.info/2006/09/11/disable-remove-and-uninstall-u3-launchpad/ [mydigitallife.info]

Directions are listed above and I can't stand U3. I agree with Sans disk that is retarded to have programs on Windows dependent on the registry which means you can't run the same apps anywhere but U3 is a bad way to fix this.

Infact U3 is a security bug as you can't just delete it and it installs itself automatically as a driver. U3 installs itself with autoplay automatically and even after delete the program off the drive. Its like the movie click where Adam Sandler throws out the remote yet it keeps reappearing on his body.

Re:*looks at san disk cards*

[obarel]

Of course patents drive the industry forward.

They motivate people to find alternatives to expensive yet ridiculously obvious "inventions", thus making huge progress in fields such as compression, encryption, search technologies etc.

Not exactly the intent behind the system, but it seems to work pretty well. If GIF hadn't been patented, we wouldn't have PNG now.