Seagate Technology, one of the leaders in hard disk drive (HDD) manufacturing, has this week slapped a stinging leather gauntlet across the somewhat shocked corporate face of flash-memory specialist STEC Inc.
Seagate lauches patent-infringement suit against STEC. Credit: Seagate.
According to allegations filed on Monday by California-based Seagate, STEC has committed a number of acts of patent infringement in relation to the development of its flash-based solid state drive (SSD) devices.
Publicly revealing the lawsuit against STEC through a letter posted to the official Seagate website, company CEO Bill Watkins said that “others in our industry” have not followed Seagate’s lead in spending billions of dollars on research and development (R&D) over the last decade, amassing some 3,900 technology patents in the process.
According to Watkins, STEC has “taken shortcuts in the race to innovate… we believe they are relying on intellectual property developed or acquired by Seagate to their own benefit.”
By way of reaction, STEC has described Seagate’s lawsuit as reactionary and anti-competitive, while also outlining that STEC had already designed, manufactured and shipped solid state drives as early as 1994, which is certainly prior to the time (2002-2006) Seagate was issued with the technology patents it is accusing STEC of violating.
“Seagate is sending a clear signal that it recognizes STEC as the leader in the SSD business and is attempting to slow down part of the growth that STEC is gaining through its SSD offering, particularly in the enterprise segment.” commented STEC in an e-mailed statement. “STEC will aggressively pursue its defense to this infringement action.”
However, Watkins insists that Seagate’s action is not intended to stifle competitive innovation or any potential HDD business challenge posed by SSD technology, but rather the simple act of “preserving for our shareholders the value we have created by building an industry-leading patent portfolio.”
In commenting on the lawsuit to Information Week, STEC’s vice president of marketing and business development, Pat Wilkinson, said that Seagate’s legal action came as somewhat of a surprise to the company -- not least because disputing companies generally approach one another in the hopes of a negotiated settlement before taking the matter to the courts.
That being said, Wilkinson also expressed his confidence that prior technology designs by STEC will likely see any patent-infringement claims emanating from Seagate dismissed through the appropriate legal channels.
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