San Francisco - Silicon Valley company Spansion sued Samsung on Monday alleging that the South Korean company had violated numerous patents in its flash memory products and asking the courts to ban the sale of devices like the Apple iPod that use Samsung memory modules.

In a related development Kodak also sued Samsung and LG Electronics for allegedly infringing its patents related to imaging technology used in camera phones. In a filing with the International Trade Commission and the District Court for Western New York, Kodak sought unspecified damages, and injunctions prohibiting South Korea-based Samsung and LG from importing and selling related products in the US.

The filing by Spansion to the ITC and the Delaware District Court was more far-reaching. It named numerous users of Samsung's flash chips that include iPod-maker Apple, Research In Motion (which makes BlackBerry devices), Lenovo Group Ltd, Sony Corp and Sony Ericsson, and estimated that the order it is seeking from the agency would block imports of more than 100 million products a year. It estimated that Samsung has sold 30 billion dollars worth of products over the past five years that contain patented Spansion technologies.

Spansion, based in Sunnyvale, California, primarily sells NOR flash memory chips that store software in cellphones and portable media players. It also holds patents that cover features of NAND flash memory, which is used to store data in a wider variety of products.

"Spansion has patents that are fundamental to flash memory. Samsung itself has cited these patents many times in its own patent filings, underscoring industry acceptance of the fundamental nature of Spansion's (intellectual property)," Robert Melendres, Spansion's executive vice president and general counsel, said in a statement. (dpa)