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From the News Desk
Thursday, 17. April 2008
Seagate Pulls SSD Maker STEC to Court for Patent Infringement
One of the world’s largest manufacturer of HDDs, Seagate Technology, has filed a patent-infringement suit against STEC, a maker of SSDs and computer memory products, which could foreshadow new legal hurdles for a technology that stores data on computer chips.
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, accuses STEC of infringing four patents held by Seagate and its Maxtor subsidiary. Seagate seeks an injunction to stop infringement of its patents and unspecified damages, which it argues should be trebled if STEC is found guilty of willful infringement.
"Others in our industry have taken shortcuts in the race to innovate, and in the process, we believe they are relying on intellectual property developed or acquired by Seagate to their own benefit," said Bill Watkins, CEO Seagate.
However, according to Information Week, STEC characterized Seagate's action as anti-competitive. "STEC is one of the first companies to build SSDs, having designed, manufactured, and shipped SSDs as early as 1994, long before any of the suggested patents were issued to Seagate," the company said in an e-mailed statement.
It's no accident that Seagate chose a company like STEC as its first target. In 2007, STEC recorded net income of USD 10 million on revenue of almost USD 189 million, as compared to Seagate's USD 11.4 billion dollars. STEC's comparatively small size and profit margin make it an ideal target, and a company that's much more likely to negotiate than, say, Samsung or Intel.
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, accuses STEC of infringing four patents held by Seagate and its Maxtor subsidiary. Seagate seeks an injunction to stop infringement of its patents and unspecified damages, which it argues should be trebled if STEC is found guilty of willful infringement.
"Others in our industry have taken shortcuts in the race to innovate, and in the process, we believe they are relying on intellectual property developed or acquired by Seagate to their own benefit," said Bill Watkins, CEO Seagate.
However, according to Information Week, STEC characterized Seagate's action as anti-competitive. "STEC is one of the first companies to build SSDs, having designed, manufactured, and shipped SSDs as early as 1994, long before any of the suggested patents were issued to Seagate," the company said in an e-mailed statement.
It's no accident that Seagate chose a company like STEC as its first target. In 2007, STEC recorded net income of USD 10 million on revenue of almost USD 189 million, as compared to Seagate's USD 11.4 billion dollars. STEC's comparatively small size and profit margin make it an ideal target, and a company that's much more likely to negotiate than, say, Samsung or Intel.
