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SK hynix ends legal dispute with SanDisk

Aug. 5, 2015 - 17:33 By 이지윤
SK hynix, South Korea’s top chip maker, said Wednesday it has agreed with U.S.-based SanDisk to end their ongoing legal battle and to extend ties on patent use.

In March last year, SanDisk filed a lawsuit against SK hynix in the U.S., claiming that its former researchers had moved to the Korean chip maker and leaked confidential business information in 2008.

Following the agreement, SK hynix will pay an undisclosed amount in patent fees to SanDisk and supply dynamic random access memory, or DRAM, chips to the U.S. company in a new deal that runs through March 2023.

The two companies signed their first patent license deal in 2007 and renewed the contract in 2012.

In December 2014, SK hynix also agreed to settle a lawsuit with Japanese tech firm Toshiba and instead cooperate in developing new technologies. Toshiba had sued the Korean firm in March last year over the alleged theft of its NAND technology.

SanDisk and Toshiba have also produced chips together.

“The renewed partnership with SanDisk has eased uncertainties in management, allowing us to focus more on product development,” said SK hynix in a statement.

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)