IV Files Suit against Semiconductor Memory Manufacturer Toshiba

Plaintiffs: Intellectual Ventures I, LLC and Intellectual Ventures II, LLC

Defendants: Toshiba Corporation, Toshiba America Information Systems, Toshiba America and Toshiba America Electronic Components

Case Type: Patent Infringement

Case Number: 1:13-cv-00453

Date Filed: Mar 20, 2013

Court: Delaware District Court

Patents-in-suit:

Patent Number Current Assignee[*]	Issue Date	Expiry Date[†]	Title
US5500819 Intellectual Ventures II	Mar 19, 1996	Sep 30, 2014	Circuits, systems and methods for improving page accesses and block transfers in a memory system
US5687132 Intellectual Ventures II	Nov 11, 1997	Oct 26, 2015	Multiple-bank memory architecture and systems and methods using the same
US5568431 Intellectual Ventures II	Oct 22, 1996	Sep 12, 2014	Low pin count - wide memory devices using non-multiplexed addressing and systems and methods using the same
US5600606 Intellectual Ventures II	Feb 04, 1997	Aug 31, 2015	Low pin count - wide memory devices using non-multiplexed addressing and systems and methods using the same
US5701270   Intellectual Ventures II	Dec 23, 1997	May 09, 2014	Single chip controller-memory device with interbank cell replacement capability and a memory architecture and methods suitable for implementing the same
US5829016 Intellectual Ventures II	Oct 27, 1998	Apr 24, 2016	Memory system with multiplexed input-output port and systems and methods using the same
US6058045 Intellectual Ventures I	May 02, 2000	Sep 04, 2017	Serial flash memory
US5938742  Intellectual Ventures I	Aug 17, 1999	Aug 18, 2015	Method for configuring an intelligent low power serial bus
US7836371 Intellectual Ventures I	Nov 16, 2010	Mar 24, 2019	On-chip service processor
US6618788 Intellectual Ventures II	Sep 09, 2003	Sep 27, 2020	ATA device control via a packet-based interface

Table information sourced from MaxVal’s Assignment Database.

As per complaint:

The complaint says that the defendants infringe the above patents by manufacturing products including

• Flash memory products such as NAND flash memory and products incorporating NAND flash memory
• Products with USB host controllers
• Microcontroller products such as ARM based controllers with Embedded Trace Macrocell (ETM) and products incorporating such controllers
• Hard drive products, such as Serial ATA (SATA) hard drives and products incorporating such hard drives.

IV’s Chief Litigation Counsel Melissa Finocchio provided the following statement:

“We have been in active licensing negotiations with Toshiba for many months, but are unable to reach mutually agreeable terms. As a result, we’ve filed a complaint for infringement that puts us on a course to end Toshiba’s unlicensed use of our intellectual property.

Most of the world’s largest memory manufacturers have recognized the value of our memory assets and are licensed to our portfolio, yet Toshiba refuses to take a license and continues to use our intellectual property in its products. Since business negotiations with Toshiba have not been fruitful, we must take the necessary actions to protect the interests of our inventors, investors and licensees.”

Other cases filed:

Another recent case filed by the plaintiff IV is against Symantec with the case number 1:13-cv-00440 on Mar 18 asserting U.S Patents 5,537,533; 6,598,131; and 6,732,359.

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[*] MaxVal offers Patent Assignment Alert service where subscribers receive email alerts when assignments relating to target applications, patents or entities of interest are recorded.

[†] Expected expiration date. Patent Term Estimator is a free web-based tool that automatically calculates patent terms and expiration dates for U.S. utility patents.