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Technology Stocks : WDC/Sandisk Corporation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: rll who wrote (4567)	1/28/1999 10:32:00 AM
From: David W. Tucker	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 60323

I think the concerns about the Lexar suit being made here are very mistaken. Sandisk filed suit AGAINST Lexar for patent infringement of a couple claims in a single patent. Typically, Lexar has countersued claiming invalidity and some illegal business practices. The first line of defense in these matters is to claim invalidity (even before you've found any prior art). Lexar has yet to show any prior art for these claims and they appear to have a weak case IMO. Sandisk has a long history now of aggressively protecting their patent rights. THIS IS GOOD. Besides that, this is a single case involving a very small portion of their patent portfolio. I would be willing to bet that at any given time, Sandisk will be in suit with someone over their patent rights. More importantly, they will be constantly informing companies of patent infringment when discovered (outside of court) which then initiates royalty discussions. They are very good at this I assure you. This Lexar thing is not a big deal. There will always be a Lexar-like case going on. What's the worse that could happen? One of their patents becomes a little weaker than it was before? Or they have to pay a little more for someone elses technology? -which they're doing already - all tech companies have to pay for some technology - it's called cross licensing. Anyway, I'm not concerned about this matter at all. Eli is proving himself to be a great leader and CEO, notwithstanding the fact that he has created some great technology himself (he is the sole inventor on many of the early pioneering Sandisk patents. dave