SanDisk and Samsung renew patent cross license and flash supply agreements

The new agreements become effective when the current cross license and supply agreements expire Aug. 14, 2009, and will run until 2016. The new patent cross-license agreement includes rights to each party’s patents broadly covering multi-level cell flash memory and flash storage systems, but does not license either party’s patent claims specific to 3-D memory technology. Over the life of the new license, the estimated effective rate of the fixed payments and royalties is expected to be approximately half of the effective rate in recent years under the current license. Financial terms of the agreements were not disclosed.