Cooters, just my take on the latest Lexar chest thumpings...
I. Venue
I don't understand the venue, Delaware. Neither company has headquarters anywhere near Delaware. In the past I recall a suit between Intel and a smaller company, perhaps Atmel, where Intel filed a suit in Delaware. The court later stated that Northern California would be a more convenient place for the trial and recommended the venue be moved to a jurisdiction closer to both companies. Thread posters on SI indicated this is often a tactic larger companies take to drain the legal defense funds of smaller companies. In this instance it was not allowed because of these bullying tactics. Whatever motivates Lexar to seek such a venue is puzzling.
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II. SmartMedia is a competing standard.
SmartMedia is not even a SanDisk invention or product; it is a Toshiba invention. I don't think SanDisk envisions SmartMedia as a major contributor to product revenues in the future. It was my understanding that SanDisk sold SmartMedia in order to:
a) round out the flash card product line,
b) foster greater brand recognition,
c) improve business ties with Toshiba, and
d) offer dedicated retailers a turnkey product line.
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III. SmartMedia is not of SanDisk origin. How could SanDisk possibly infringe on Lexar's patents?
SmartMedia is a NAND-based product, not NOR. SmartMedia is not a central player in SanDisk's product line. If you look through the SanDisk 1999 Annual Report you will see that SmartMedia is listed as a competing product. There are no photos of SmartMedia to be found. Further, SmartMedia revenues are neither reported by SanDisk in their quarterly reports, nor mentioned during c.c's. You will never see a SanDisk press release promoting a new OEM deal with SanDisk SmartMedia. The reason is because SanDisk is known for its intelligent, removable flash memory products and SmartMedia does not fit this bill. Even the Lexar press release from tonite spells this out in no uncertain terms...
Sandisk, of Sunnyvale, California, is the world's largest supplier of flash data storage products including CompactFlash Cards, MultiMedia Cards, Secure Digital cards. SanDisk spokesman Elias Castillo said the company could not comment on the lawsuit until it could review it. He notes that the SmartMedia card referred to by Lexar is made by Toshiba and branded by SanDisk.
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IV. SmartMedia is an open standard. It is manufactured by Toshiba, its inventor, and Samsung.
As posted here, the SmartMedia interface was recently made an open standard.
eet.com
Aiming to create a de facto standard in the harshly competitive memory card market, backers of the SmartMedia card have opened its interface specification and made it available free of charge. The move is designed to give the flash memory card format, initially spearheaded by Toshiba Corporation, an edge as it competes for slots in digital cameras, personal digital assistants and other mobile devices.
[snip]
Toshiba owns the interface specification's intellectual property. But Hiroshi Iwasaki, senior manager of Toshiba's media card strategic planning group, said, "The company has no intention of collecting license fees. It is open to users so long as they use it properly."
[snip]
The SmartMedia card measures 37 x 45 x 0.76 mm and has 22 I/O pins but no controller. It was among the first media cards launched and has been competing with SanDisk's CompactFlash cards and Sony's Memory Stick in the digital still camera market. The card's simple, controllerless structure is often criticized by competitors.
[snip]
Toshiba and Samsung Electronics are currently producing the card.
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I hope this long-winded post makes sense to SanDisk longs.
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