CUPERTINO, CA – March 28, 2012– The TPL Group announced today that it has filed a Complaint with the US International Trade Commission and a corresponding Complaint in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas against 19 companies it believes are infringing its CORE Flash Patent Portfolio. CORE Flash technology generally relates to devices capable of reading multiple flash memory card types.
TPL continues to invest aggressively to protect its CORE Flash licensee community. More than 30 companies have purchased CORE Flash Patent Portfolio licenses, including, Lexmark, ASUStek, Royal Philips, Belkin, IOGear, Lenovo Group, Audiovox and Viewsonic.
This is the second group of complaints filed by TPL on its CORE Flash technology. TPL previously filed complaints with the ITC and in US District Court against 18 companies in August 2011. Eight of those companies have since purchased licenses. Five active respondents remain in the investigation. The remainder of the original respondents were either terminated based on findings of default or stipulated consent orders. Under the current schedule, trial commences in September 2012 and the target date for the completion of the investigation is February 2013.
The ITC Petition and the District Court Complaint filed this week name a total of 21 companies, including Acer Inc.; Brother Industries, Ltd.; Canon Inc.; Dane-Elec Memory; Dell Inc.; Falcon Northwest Computer Systems, Inc.; Fujitsu Limited; Jasco Products Company; Hewlett-Packard Company; HiTi Digital, Inc.; Kingston Technology Company, Inc.; Lexar Media, Inc.; Microdia Limited; Newegg Inc.; Sabrent; Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.; Seiko Epson Corporation; Shuttle Inc.; Systemax Inc.
About the CORE Flash Portfolio
The CORE Flash Portfolio contains intellectual property that was developed and productized by the OnSpec Division of The TPL Group. The Portfolio includes 32 US and international patents, and nine pending patent applications. The CORE Flash Portfolio technologies protect key aspects of flash-memory management and control, including software, firmware, hardware, and mechanical designs.
About The TPL Group
Founded in 1988, The TPL Group has evolved as a coalition of technology-based enterprises dedicated to the development, management and commercialization of proprietary technology, and the design, manufacture and sales of proprietary products based on those IP assets. Among the advanced products that TPL brings to market are multi-core microprocessors, memory management and control devices, advanced hearing and listening solutions, energy efficient computing architectures, encryption storage products, sub-wavelength acoustic transducers, wafer-level packaging, and solderless pcb-assembly technology. For more information, visit www.tplgroup.net.