http://www.ce.cn/cysc/tech/07ityj/guonei/200910/03/t20091003_19734001.shtmlhttp://www.netac.com/newsshow.php?info_id=45&mid=From Wikipedia:
Trek Technology and IBM began selling the first USB flash drives commercially in 2000. The Singaporean Trek Technology sold a model dubbed the "ThumbDrive," and IBM marketed the first such drives in North America, with its product the "DiskOnKey" (which was manufactured by the Israeli company M-Systems). IBM's USB flash drive became available on December 15, 2000,[6] and had a storage capacity of 8 MB, more than five times the capacity of the then-common floppy disks.
In 2000 Lexar introduced a Compact Flash (CF) card with a USB connection, and a companion card read/writer and USB cable that eliminated the need for a USB hub.
In 2002 Netac Technology, a Shenzen consumer electronics company which claims to have invented the USB flash drive in the late 1990s,[7] was granted a Chinese patent for the device.[8]
Both Trek Technology and Netac Technology have tried to protect their patent claims. Trek won a Singaporean suit,[9] but a court in the United Kingdom revoked one of Trek's UK patents.[10] While Netac Technology has brought lawsuits against PNY Technologies,[8] Lenovo,[11] aigo,[12] Sony,[13][14][15] and Taiwan's Acer and Tai Guen Enterprise Co,[15] most companies that manufacture USB flash drives do so without regard for Trek and Netac's patents.