Imagine having your merchandize seized by police at an important trade show. Talk about sending the wrong message! Yet this is what happened to SanDisk at the IFA show in Berlin. Apparently, SanDisk did not pay Italian patent company Sisvel the proper licensing fees for the rights to use MP3 playback files on SanDisk’s newest products. Sisvel applied for an injunction, and German officials stepped in and removed the questionable MP3 players from SanDisk’s IFA booth.

Tough break! However, Sisvel has said that SanDisk would have “an unfair edge over competitors” and has to protect the rights of their 600 licensees. SanDisk believes that its “MP3 players operate a technology which is completely different from certain audio data transmission and reception techniques that has been patented for Phillips and others many years ago”. They also claim that one of the founders of the MP3 digital audio compression substantiates says that “SanDisk is not infringing any patent in the pending litigation”.

Looks like the war has begun, and I’m wondering what side to take. If Sisvel really is the big man trying to stomp on the little man, then it must be threatened by something. If SanDisk really has technology different than most MP3 agreements, perhaps it’s time to review these patents.