Hitachi, SanDisk renew licensing agreement

Hitachi, SanDisk renew licensing agreement
By Semiconductor Business News
October 3, 2000 (10:19 a.m. EST)
URL: http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20001003S0022

TOKYO - Hitachi Ltd. and SanDisk Corp. here today announced that they have renewed their existing patent cross-licensing agreement concerning flash-memory technology.

Under the new agreement, SanDisk and Hitachi will be free to use each other's patents related to flash memories, with some exclusion of each company's proprietary technology. In addition, SanDisk will be guaranteed a portion of Hitachi's flash memory capacity. Other terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

"We expect this relationship will be a benefit for our flash memory customers and provide a clear path for the expansion of flash technology to new applications," said Mikio Sakurai, general manager of the System Memory Business Division in Hitachi's Semiconductor & Integrated Circuits Group.