Another US Lawsuit
SanDisk filed a lawsuit with the U.S. District Court of San Francisco against SK Hynix, claiming that the latter stole its technology. SanDisk asked for a sales ban on the NAND flash memory associated with the allegations of technology theft and claimed damages as well.
In the meantime, Toshiba, which is in partnership with SanDisk, filed a damage suit on March 13 with the Tokyo District Court, asserting that SK Hynix acquired its NAND flash memory technology without consent to cause losses of more than 100 billion yen (US$983.9 million).
Under the circumstances, industry insiders are saying that Japanese semiconductor manufacturers, which are in rivalry with Korean companies in the NAND flash market, are playing the media.
As of the last quarter of 2013, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix accounted for 40 percent and 19 percent of the global NAND flash market, respectively. Toshiba’s market share stood at 25 percent during the same period.