To: Binx Bolling who wrote (15962 ) 10/24/2000 2:24:10 PM From: Ausdauer Read Replies (5) | Respond to I stand corrected, the patent invalidation trial also appears to be "On March 30, 2000, the court found that certain of our products infringe one of the claims of SanDisk's patent. The court has set a trial date for October 23, 2000 to determine whether we infringe any of the other claims of the patent and whether the patent is valid. SanDisk could seek an injunction at any time before the trial. We intend to continue to vigorously defend the SanDisk litigation. We believe that U.S. Patent No. 5,602,987 is invalid and our products do not infringe any of the valid claims of that patent. We intend to vigorously contest SanDisk's claims and the validity of SanDisk's patent at trial, but to succeed, we will have to overcome by clear and convincing evidence the legal presumption that a patent is valid. This is a difficult burden of proof and, as a result, patents are found to be valid in a significant majority of cases. In the event a preliminary or permanent injunction were granted, we would be unable to sell products found to infringe SanDisk's patent. Such an injunction would result in our not being able to ship a substantial portion of our products and might require us to recall the infringing products from our customers, which would cause a substantial reduction in our revenues, significant losses and loss of customer goodwill for an extended period of time. As a result, we would face a substantial depletion of our financial resources that could severely limit our future business prospects or render us insolvent."
