Seagate uses patents against Solid State Drive manufacturers
Written by admin on April 16th, 2008 in Gadgets and Devices.
In the cutthroat storage market profit margins are small and the competition rife. Seagate has decided that it’s time to start getting aggressive and is actioning some patents it believes are being violated by solid state drive (SSD) manufacturers.
The company STEC, which manufacture the Zeus-IOPS SSDs for enterprise customers, is the first target. Seagate claims STEC is violating four patents it holds relating to the communication of an SSD with a computer, including how they handle error corrections and how they handle memory backups. It also claims that STEC have been approached about taking out a license, but did not respond.
With what it sees as failed communications and clear patent violations, Seagate has filed a lawsuit against STEC in the District Court for the Northern District of California. STEC has responded to that lawsuit by saying it was never contacted by Seagate, is going to review the patents in question and that:
STEC believes it held such technology including prior patents, dating more than a decade prior to any of Seagate’s patents.
Read more at PC Pro, CNET and the STEC press release
Matthew’s Opinion
This looks like it is going to get nasty and whoever wins could potentially start getting licensing fees for the sale of solid state drives. That would be quite a nice addition to profits and I’m sure other SSD manufacturers are checking those same patents too in case they are on the list of targets.
The lawsuit could back fire on Seagate if STEC proves it has prior patents. STEC would certainly return the favor and request Seagate start licensing from them. How embarrassing that would be for Seagate…
Tags: cameras, hi fi, gadgetry, mobile devices
