Samsung hit by series of patent suits

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-11-18 10:05

Sunnyvale-based Spansion, the world's No. 3 maker of flash memory chips by revenue, sued South Korea's Samsung over patant violation on Monday.

Also on Monday, Eastman Kodak Co. said it is suing Samsung, as well as LG Electronics Inc. for infringing various digital-camera patents it obtained between 1993 and 2001.

An employee of Samsung Electronics listens to a music at a show room of the company where LCD screens, mobile phones and MP3 are displayed in Seoul October 24, 2008. The South Korea electronics giant is hit hard by a series of patant suits on Monday. [Agencies]

Spansion Inc. wants to block sales of iPods, BlackBerry gadgets and other devices because memory chips made by Samsung Electronics Co. and used in those products allegedly violate Spansion patents.

Spansion claims more than "one hundred million mp3 players, cell phones, digital cameras and other consumer electronic devices" are made with Samsung flash memory chips that violate Spansion patents.

Spansion claims Samsung has sold $30 billion worth of products over the past five years that contain patented Spansion technologies. Samsung is the world's biggest memory-chip maker.

"Spansion has patents that are fundamental to flash memory. Samsung itself has cited these patents many times in its own patent filings, underscoring industry acceptance of the fundamental nature of Spansion's (intellectual property)," Robert Melendres, Spansion's executive vice president and general counsel, said in a statement.

Eastman Kodak Co., the photography products company, alleges that camera phones made by the Seoul-based electronics companies and their US subsidiaries violate patents on its inventions related to image capture, compression and data storage, and a method for previewing motion images.

"We've held discussions with both companies in an attempt to resolve this issue and have not been able to reach a satisfactory agreement," said Laura Quatela, Kodak's chief intellectual property officer. "Consequently, we must take this legal action."

Samsung declined to comment.

Patent-infringement lawsuits often have high stakes but ultimately have little affect on consumers because they're settled out of court.