The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) has launched an investigation into Spansion’s patent infringement complaint against Samsung.
Spansion alleges Samsung’s products violate four of its patents on flash memory and has asked the ITC to ban Samsung from selling and importing its products in the United States.
Several of Samsung’s customers that use products implicated by the complaint are also being investigated, including Apple, Nokia and Research In Motion.
Spansion first filed a complaint against Samsung with the ITC and the U.S. District Court in Delaware in November 2008. Spansion expanded its complaint to three additional patents in August.
The suit targets Samsung’s flash memory products and downstream devices that contain them. Flash memory is used in a variety of consumer electronics, including cell phones, MP3 players and tablet computers.
Spansion claims its intellectual property portfolio covers a variety of inventions related to floating gate technology, which represents 90 percent of the entire flash memory market.
Samsung filed a counter suit against Spansion in August 2009. A hearing for that suit is slated for December 2010.
Filed Under: Industry regulations