A Californian court has ruled that SanDisk, a company with a
patent over flash memory technology that it promoted as an open
standard, must stand trial on claims of fraud, patent misuse and
unfair competition.
The case is being brought by Lexar Media, a US company that
specialises in storage for digital cameras. Its president and CEO,
John Reimer, yesterday said:
“SanDisk claims that its patent covers all
CompactFlash cards and they appear to be seeking a royalty from
every manufacturer of those cards. Yet they have always promoted
the CompactFlash standard as an open one. If [SanDisk's patent] is
as broad as they believe it is, then it should have been disclosed
to the industry standards-setting bodies.”
“We believe that this anti-competitive
behaviour is harmful to the entire industry. We are also pleased
that the Court will review SanDisk's patent misuse which includes
our allegations of unlawful tying whereby SanDisk has refused to
license [its] patent unless the licensee purchases flash memory
from certain SanDisk designees. We therefore look forward to not
only the Court's review of the validity of SanDisk's patent, but
also the manner in which it was obtained."
The trial will commence on 6th November.
