Patent Question for Stalwart Readers

Here's a clip from this weekend's Barron's about the patent-related legal-squabbles between Sandisk and STMicro:

Most astonishing, however, is the suit that STMicro filed on Oct. 14, 2005, in California state court, alleging that SanDisk's key patents were covertly developed by Eli Harari in the late 1980s, while he was obligated to assign inventions to WaferScale Integration, the memory-chip outfit that Harari founded before SanDisk. Harari has been a prolific inventor, filing more than 130 patent applications over the course of his three-decade career. But there was an uncharacteristic dry spell in Harari's patent applications from 1983 through 1988, when he was WaferScale's technology boss. In February 1988, he stepped down as an executive, but continued as a paid consultant and director of WaferScale.

In the next four months, Harari seemed to enjoy an inventive renaissance: He filed four patent applications and founded SanDisk. STMicro alleges that Harari's contract promised his inventions to WaferScale, but that he concealed the four applications from his employer. Those four applications eventually yielded 27 patents to SanDisk. In April 1989, less than a month after resigning from WaferScale's board, Harari filed patent applications that led to 24 more SanDisk patents, STMicro alleges.

STMicro bought WaferScale in 2000, and claims that it only discovered this ancient history while preparing for the current patent litigation against SanDisk. Now, STMicro wants SanDisk's patents. SanDisk has answered STMicro's fraud claim in federal court, where SanDisk wants them handled, and denies that Harari wronged his prior employer.

This sounds like a fascinating case.  Does anyone know much about patent law, and whether there's any precedent for a lawsuit based on this kind of speculation?  Just leave a comment or send an email if you have any insight.

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