SANDISK ISSUES STATEMENT REGARDING ITC RULING OF NON-INFRINGEMENT OF TWO PATENTS
MILPITAS, California, April 10, 2009 - SanDisk®
Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK) was informed today that an
Administrative Law Judge for the United States International Trade
Commission (ITC) issued an Initial Determination which found that
certain accused flash memory products did not infringe the
remaining two SanDisk United States Patents.
SanDisk initially asserted five patents in the ITC on October
24, 2007 against 25 companies that manufacture, sell and import USB
flash drives, CompactFlash cards, MultiMedia cards, MP3/media
players and/or other removable flash storage products. Since then,
SanDisk obtained judgments against the following companies: Zotek
Electronic Co., Ltd. dba Zodata Technology Limited; Infotech
Logistic, LLC dba Supertron Memory; Add-On Technology Co.; Behavior
Tech Computer Corp.; Emprex Technologies Corp.; and Behavior Tech
Computer USA Corp. dba BTC USA.
In addition, the following companies entered into settlement and
license agreements with SanDisk: Trek 2000 International, Ltd., PNY
Technologies, Inc., Verbatim Corp., Verbatim Americas, Add-On
Computer Peripherals, Inc. and Add-On Computer Peripherals, LLC
(collectively, Add-On USA), Edge Tech Corporation, Infotech
Logistic, Interactive Media Corp. (Kanguru), Kaser Corporation, TSR
Silicon Resources Inc., and Welldone Company.
Further, the following companies entered into settlement
agreements that included consent orders where the companies agreed
to limit their imports of specified products to the United States
to SanDisk licensed products: A-DATA Technology Co., Ltd. and
A-DATA Technology (USA) Co., Ltd. (collectively, A-DATA entities),
Melco Holdings Inc., Buffalo Inc., and Buffalo Technology (USA),
Inc. (collectively, Buffalo entities) and Corsair Memory, Inc.
"SanDisk is disappointed by the Initial Determination of the
Administrative Law Judge," said E. Earle Thompson, vice president
and chief intellectual property counsel, SanDisk. "We will continue
to vigorously pursue actions against companies that use SanDisk's
patented technology without a license. SanDisk expects that the
Initial Determination will not adversely impact existing licensing
agreements or the royalties expected from those agreements."
About SanDisk
SanDisk is the original inventor of flash storage cards and is one
of the world's largest suppliers of flash data storage card
products, using its patented, high-density flash memory and
controller technology. SanDisk is headquartered in Milpitas,
California, and has operations worldwide, with more than half its
sales outside the United States.
SanDisk's product and executive images can be downloaded from:
http://www.sandisk.com/corporate/media.asp
SanDisk's web site/home page address: http://www.sandisk.com
SanDisk and the SanDisk logo are trademarks of SanDisk
Corporation, registered in the United States and other countries.
Other trade names mentioned herein are for identification purposes
only and may be the trademarks of their respective holder(s).
This press release contains forward-looking statements, including
expectations for the litigation, the cost of the litigation and the
outcome of the controversy and future license and royalty revenue
to SanDisk that are based on SanDisk's current expectations and
involve numerous risks and uncertainties that may cause these
forward-looking statements to be inaccurate. Risks that may cause
these forward-looking statements to be inaccurate include, among
others: we may be unable to protect our intellectual property
rights, which would harm our business, financial condition and
results of operations; we may be unable to license intellectual
property to or from third parties as needed, or renew existing
licenses, which could expose us to liability for damages, reduce
our royalty revenues, increase our costs or limit or prohibit us
from selling products; we currently are and may in the future be
involved in litigation, including litigation regarding our
intellectual property rights or those of third parties, which may
be costly, may divert the efforts of our key personnel and could
result in adverse court rulings, which could materially harm our
business; and the other risks detailed from time-to-time in
SanDisk's Securities and Exchange Commission filings and reports,
including, but not limited to, its Form 10-K and quarterly reports
on Form 10-Q. SanDisk does not intend to update the information in
this press release.