Last month, Seagate CEO Bill Watkins raised eyebrows when he said Seagate was convinced that SSD manufacturers were infringing on Seagate patents, and that lawsuits were a possibility if SSD drives became more popular. A bit of sour grapes perhaps, but Monday Seagate followed through with a lawsuit against SSD manufacturer STEC.
Seagate's lawsuit charges that STEC violated four of its patents relating to error correction, memory-backup systems, and storage interfaces with computers.
In a statement to the Wall Street Journal (subscription required), Watkins said that Seagate had tried to convince SSD manufacturers to license Seagate's patents.
"They have blatantly decided they don't have to," Mr. Watkins said. "Now is the time to start enforcing our patents."
The lawsuit was filed on Monday, and on Tuesday STEC fired back with a press release. They actually didn't mince any words. Emphasis below is mine.
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. Given the effect SSDs are having on the HDD market, STEC believes that Seagate's lawsuit is completely without merit and primarily motivated by competitive concerns rather than a desire to protect its intellectual property. STEC believes that Seagate's action is a desperate move to disrupt how aggressively customers are embracing STEC's Zeus-IOPS technology and changing the balance of power in enterprise storage.
Tell us how you really feel! STEC went on to say:
STEC has significant patents related to SSD which have been developed through the decades of experience STEC has with developing, manufacturing and shipping SSDs. Beyond that long history, STEC also believes that many of Seagate's claims are not relevant to SSD. For example, STEC was one of the originators of stacking technology with patents dating back to the mid-1990s, while Seagate's patent on this matter was issued in 2005.
Through this process, STEC will determine if Seagate is misappropriating any of STEC's core technologies; STEC will take appropriate action to protect its interests, including seeking the invalidation of Seagate's patents.
In other words, "Watch it. We're ticked off now and we'll likely countersue." STEC is the first SSD manufacturer to be sued by Seagate, but it obviously won't be the last.
Source: By Tech Ex
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