How, exactly does that align with how iTunes stores and retrieves data? Indeed, removable flash storage, itself, is a broad concept that has been in use longer than the patent has been issued.
I'm not a lawyer and I've only read the suit, not the patents.
What I know of SmartFlash is that it was a USB device for accessing multimedia content securely via a digital signature, then uploading, downloading and purchasing content to, from and via the device.
To understand how this was viewed at the time, here’s a ‘fanboy’ posting that I shared with Swordmaker. It's not my writing or point of view, but it offers insight into the device and why it was considered innovative.
The concept appears to be a proprietary Flash drive with a ROM in it that would connect your computer securely to a server which would know that you were authorized to do business with it because you had the flash drive.