SanDisk Corp, the world’s biggest maker of cards that store digital pictures, failed to convince US officials that more than a dozen companies infringe its patents for flash-memory technology.
The US International Trade Commission (ITC) in Washington said on Friday that there had been “no violation.” SanDisk originally said almost 50 companies, including LG Electronics Inc and Imation Corp, violated its patents and asked the commission to ban imports to the US of infringing products.
A finding of violation could have resulted in a ban of imports of any products that infringe the SanDisk patent.
Of the original group named in the complaint, 21 were terminated from the investigation because of settlements, consent orders and withdrawals, the ITC notice said. Five companies defaulted, the ITC said.
Flash-memory chips are used to store data in digital cameras, cell phones and MP3 players. SanDisk had originally said 50 companies and their units violated its patents and refused to pay licensing fees. The company received US$191.5 million in licensing and royalty fees in the first six months of the year, or 14 percent of its total revenue, SanDisk said in July.
SanDisk’s complaint targeted flash drives, memory cards, USB drives and media players made by the companies.
The companies that still remained in the case included Phison Electronics Corp (群聯電子), Silicon Motion Technology Corp (慧榮科技) and Skymedi Corp (擎泰科技), of Hsinchu; Power Quotient International Co (勁永國際), Transcend Information Inc (創見資訊) and Apacer Technology Inc (宇瞻科技) of Taipei; Syscom Development Co of the British Virgin Islands; Kingston Technology Corp of Fountain Valley, California; and Dane-Elec Memory of Bagnolet, France.
SanDisk fell US$0.73, or 3.2 percent, to US$22.12 in NASDAQ Stock Market trading on Friday.
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