Toshiba, Micron drop swords over Lexar patents

September 15, 2006 – Toshiba Corp. and Micron Technology Inc. have settled pending litigation over Micron’s acquisition of Lexar Media Inc. earlier this year. Under terms of the deal, Toshiba will pay $288 million to purchase certain of Micron’s semiconductor technology patents and license patents previously owned by Lexar Media, Inc.

“We have enjoyed a strong relationship with Toshiba for a number of years, have the highest respect for Toshiba as an innovator in flash technology and see no merit in continuing to pursue this litigation,” stated Steve Appleton, Micron chairman, president, and CEO.

Lexar filed a complaint with the International Trade Commission in April, alleging that Toshiba’s 1-16Gbit single- and multilevel cell NAND flash chips infringe upon its patented NAND flash technologies. Lexar won a $450 million ruling in 2005 that found Toshiba had misappropriated technologies from the company, relating to an agreement to codevelop NAND flash memory for digital cameras, and Toshiba’s subsequent about-face partnership with SanDisk.

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