Fish Wins ITC Ruling in Phison Patent Case

Phison found not to infringe SanDisk's flash patents

Washington, D.C., April 21, 2009 - Fish & Richardson has won an International Trade Commission (ITC) ruling for Phison Electronics Corp., a large Taiwanese electronics company that manufactures flash memory products, in a patent infringement case brought by SanDisk Corp. On April 10, 2009, an Administrative Law Judge in the ITC issued an initial determination finding no infringement by Phison products.

The ITC case began in 2007 when SanDisk asserted five patents against dozens of companies that make, sell, and import USB flash cards, MP3 players, and other flash storage products. Four of the five patents were asserted against Phison products. By the time of the ITC trial, only one patent remained in the case against Phison. The ALJ's ruling determined that Phison's products do not infringe that remaining patent.

"Phison is very pleased with the ruling. While Phison respects SanDisk's right to protect its intellectual property, Phison was confident that its products would be found non-infringing," said David Barkan, a principal in Fish & Richardson's Silicon Valley office who handled the case.

Phison Electronics Corp., is a Taiwanese electronics company that designs and sells flash memory controllers and peripheral system applications, as well as designs the Texas Instruments' digital signal processor systems. Phison sells its products primarily in Asia, Europe, the United States, and Australia.