Posted on Wednesday, November 19 2008 @ 0:05 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck
Spansion
has sued Samsung over flash memory patents and wants to block U.S. sales of devices with Samsung flash memory, this includes products such as the iPod, BlackBerry and other popular devices.
Sunnyvale-based Spansion, the world's No. 3 maker of flash memory chips by revenue, sued South Korea's Samsung on Monday. Spansion claims more than "one hundred million mp3 players, cell phones, digital cameras and other consumer electronic devices" are made with Samsung flash memory chips that violate Spansion patents.
Samsung is the world's biggest memory-chip maker. Flash memory chips are widely used in portable electronics. They're popular because they access data quickly, require little power and are rugged enough to withstand drops without losing information.
Spansion claims Samsung has sold $30 billion worth of products over the past five years that contain patented Spansion technologies.
"Spansion has patents that are fundamental to flash memory. Samsung itself has cited these patents many times in its own patent filings, underscoring industry acceptance of the fundamental nature of Spansion's (intellectual property)," Robert Melendres, Spansion's executive vice president and general counsel, said in a statement.
