Kingston leading the opposition against SanDisk patent lawsuit
Three major camps have formed out of the 25 companies sued by SanDisk over NAND flash-related patent infringement, with Kingston Technology’s camp taking the lead in fighting against SanDisk, according to sources at Taiwan memory makers. Of the various companies being sued, Kingston and Phison Electronics have taken the lead role in fighting the lawsuit. A second camp is being led by A-Data Technology, Afa Technologies and Skymedi and the third is led by Apacer Technology, Transcend Information and Silicon Motion, the sources revealed.
Reviewing relationships between companies in the same camp, most of them have pre-existing investment relationships, implying that they are unlikely to join other camps over the lawsuit, the sources noted. Some memory makers commented that SanDisk suit is primarily driven by Kingston’s growing position in the NAND flash market, especially in Asia and emerging markets. Most involved companies think that the lawsuit is more a dispute between SanDisk and Kingston because Kingston is putting up the strongest opposition in fighting the allegations, while many of the involved parties are happy to adopt a wait-and-see attitude as their sales contribution from the US is relatively low.
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