Macronix International Co., Ltd. , a global leader providing non-volatile memory solutions, announced that it has filed a patent infringement law suit against Spansion LLC and Spansion Inc. in the United States for infringement of seven Macronix patents directed to numerous aspects of flash memory. Macronix has taken this step to address Spansion's rampant infringement of Macronix's patent rights.

The seven patents relate to manufacturing of flash memory chips, compact memory with serial interfaces, security of memory cells, and circuit designs for flash memory. The patents in suit represent only a small fraction of Macronix world-wide patent portfolio.

Over the past 24 years, Macronix invested heavily in the research and development of non-volatile memory technology. As a result of those investments, Macronix's research papers of advanced technologies have been continuously selected in international conferences such as IEDM, ISSCC and VLSI and Macronix has been granted more than 5,000 patents worldwide. In a 2011 analysis conducted by The Patent Board, Macronix was as 18th worldwide, and first in Taiwan for patent strength in the semiconductor industry.

In this action, Macronix is seeking to recover money damages, as well as obtain an injunction prohibiting Spansion's unauthorized use of Macronix patent rights. As demonstrated by the filing of this litigation, Macronix intends to continue to vigorously defend its valuable intellectual property rights.