Battle of the giants

Two separate patent infringement complaints against Samsung with the International Trade Commission and in the US District Court in Delaware have been made by Spansion. The company is calling for the exclusion of more than 100million mp3 players, cell phones and other consumer products containing the infringing memory components. Spansion claims that the patent violations relating to Samsung Flash memory accounts for over $30billion in Samsung’s global revenue since 2003. The patents named in the lawsuit are fundamental to floating gate technology, the foundation for 90% of the Flash memory market and worth $130b in semiconductor revenues since 2000. "Samsung itself has cited these patents many times in its own patent filings, underscoring industry acceptance of the fundamental nature of Spansion's IP," said Robert Melendres, executive vice president and general counsel for Spansion. "Spansion will vigorously protect its intellectual property and is entitled to be compensated by Samsung for its use of our IP." Spansion is the third largest provider of Flash memory in the world, with $2.5b in revenue in 2007.