Netac Technology
'"Netac Technology Co., Ltd."' is a Shenzen technology company which claims to have invented the USB flash drive.[1] It is a Chinese OEM/ODM.
History
Founded on the 29th of April 1999,[2] by Guoshun Frank Deng and Cheng Xiaohua, [2] the two worked for a year developing an eight megabyte flash memory thumb drive, which Deng christened the "U disk."[2] On July 24, 2002 Netac was granted its first patent, which was for an electronic flash memory external storage method and device, Chinese patent number ZL99117225.6[3], and September of 2002 saw Netac launching its first products.[2]
Products
While Netac mainly manufactures USB flash drives, external HDD drives, MP3 Players, digital photo frames, microcontroller units, and SD cards are also among the product line.
Patents
Netac is unique among Chinese OEMs in that it holds a number of patents.[4] By 2009, Netac had filed for over 300 patents in the USA, South Korea, Singapore, and the Peoples' Republic of China.[1] Over 200 of those patent applications had been filed by 2005.[4]
Lawsuits
Intellectual-property infringement is widespread in China,[4] and Netac has taken companies both in and outside of China to court in order to protect the monopoly its patents grant.[2] Companies it has sued include US-based PNY Technologies,[3] and Beijing's Huaqi Information Digital Technology Co. Ltd..[2]
- ^ a b Netac Company Introduction Netac Official Site
- ^ a b c d e f G. Frank Deng: An IPR warrior leading a new industry Netac Official Site
- ^ a b Netac TimelineNetac Official Website
- ^ a b c Thinking for Themselves Survey: Patents and Technology, Oct 20th 2005