SK hynix, the world's No. 2 memory chip maker, has settled its lawsuit against SanDisk, a U.S.-based supplier of flash memory solutions after the two companies agreed to modify and extend their licensing relationship.

"SanDisk dropped its lawsuit against SK hynix," SK hynix said Wednesday. "The renewed partnership is calling for SK hynix to supply a certain amount of DRAM chips for use in MCP and SSD solutions."

The agreements also include a complete settlement of the trade-secret misappropriation suit filed by SanDisk in March last year, according to SK hynix.

Under this mutual agreement, which will expire on March 31, 2023, SanDisk will release SK hynix from its liability pertaining to trade-secret litigation and license certain intellectual property rights to SK hynix in exchange for license and royalty payments over the life of the agreement.

SanDisk earlier brought SK Group's semiconductor unit to a Santa Clara court in California.

The specific terms and conditions of the agreements are confidential, SK hynix said.

The latest agreement comes after SK hynix agreed with Toshiba of Japan to drop all litigation filed by the Japanese company over SK hynix's alleged involvement in stealing confidential data after the two companies agreed jointly to develop next-generation lithography manufacturing technology ¯ Nano Imprint Lithography.

"We believe this resolution is positive for both SK hynix, SanDisk and our customers," SK hynix CEO Park Sung-wook said. "We look forward to the renewal and extension of our business collaboration with SanDisk."

SanDisk president and chief executive Sanjay Mehrotra said: "We are pleased to have reached this important settlement and to expand our commercial relationship with SK hynix.

"We believe this resolution acknowledges the value of our intellectual property while providing SanDisk access to DRAM solutions desired by our customers for their mobile and SSD applications for many years to come."

Cross-licensing has become a major trend in the global semiconductor industry as it is controlled by a few major players ¯ Samsung Electronics, SK hynix, Micron Technology of the United States, Toshiba and SanDisk.

"As a new order prevails in the industry after bankruptcies and exits, the survivors want to keep today's market order by expanding strategic collaboration," an official said. "This is a new type of model for sustainability by chip manufacturers."

By: DocMemory
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