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Seagate Accuses Cornice of Patent Infringement
dncsky1530 writes "Seagate's recently filed a patent infringement lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware against Cornice of Longmont, Colo. Now it is seeking an order from the U.S. International Trade Commission to exclude Cornice disk drives and any systems or products using or containing Cornice disc drives from entry into the United States. Seagate asserts that Cornice is infringing on seven of its U.S. patents that relate to several areas of disk drive technology."
seems to be the American way of doing buisness thesedays, at what point will we all stand around too frightened to develop anything for fear of being sued by a team of lawyers ?
simply developers will end up forgetting about the US market and concentrate on other countries like China or India, perhaps USA's patent/litigate buisness model is just the beginning of its end
cheers
A>S
Sounds like Cornice really is thieving -- Western Digital has also filed patent infringement charges against them. This is one case where I'm actually FOR filing suit.
I feel dirty saying that here...
...are something like:
Patent One:
1) Method of storage digital data in a round magnetic medium
2) Method of spinning magnetic medium
3) Method of writing to round spinning magnetic medium
4) Method of reading from round spinning magnetic medium
5) Method of using round magnetic medium, reading and writing so that it can be put in a small box with electrical connectors
6) Method of taking small box containing magnetic medium that can be read and written, using electrical connectors to attach to Electronic Data Processing Machine
7) Method of taking small box containing magnetic medium that can be read and written, using electrical connects and drilling 4 holes in it so you can use a screwdrive to attach to said EDP machine.
8) Amen.
They had to go and make the platters round. Didn't they know Seagate had a patent on round flat things with a hole in the center? Man, if it wasn't for Dunkin Donuts, they would have gotten that patent on ring-torus shaped things as well. And what would the police have to do if that had happened?
Now it is seeking an order from the U.S. International Trade Commission to exclude Cornice disk drives and any systems or products using or containing Cornice disc drives from entry into the United States.
If Seagate is truly out to protect their revenue (which is the intention of patents), they should have no problem letting Cornice continue to sell their wares... If Cornice is really infringing on the patents, they will eventually have to pay licensing fees to Seagate, so the more they sell the more Seagate will benefit. And if there is no infringement, then there is no point in stopping their sales.
This is where the US patent system is fucked up. Any patent-holder should be forced to allow others to use the technology by paying a reasonable licensing fee. Entities should never be able to use patents as a way of stopping competitors from making sales. Yet the latter has become the US way of doing business. Sad.
-hadohk
If they are violating Segates patents, then they SHOULD be sued..
Abuse of patent the system is wrong, but if you have received patent approval, you have the right ( obligation as far as im concerned ) to protect your patent.
If the patent system was totally abolished, then few companies would bother to innovate. Without some protection of having your work stolen ( and future income derived from it ) from you, why bother at all?
---- Booth was a patriot ----
I mean the patent laws are anti-business
Eh? I guess that's true if your "business" is using the fruits of the research and development of other companies without any permission or compensation. But I'm afraid most business, at least those interested in developing new things, appreciate that they can use patents to help ensure they make some money to pay off that fat R&D bill before everyone else just reverse-engineers a product and puts out a knock-off version for half the price immediately.
How will small businesses and internationals compete against US businesses when all international products are up for review.
The same way they always have -- through innovation, superior products, better service, better prices, etc. You don't have to steal to compete.
everything in moderation
But in this case, this is being done to protect a US-based company from being driven out of the business by a competitor that's making the same product without having to pay any of the R&D costs behind it.
Patents exist so whomever bears the R&D cost has some decent chance of profiting before everybody else rushes in and drives down the price. If you allow the patent system to fall, R&D dies with it.
Only a terrorist would question the government.
-- John Ashcroft
You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
Some of you are in a real hurry to convict Cornice with out having a grasp of what the situation is. They are a start-up with good technology and good sales. Basically they produce diskdrives that use very few parts. Cornice was started by a group that use to make Maxtor, Seagate, etc. They know well what the patents are. My understanding is that the company is not infringing, but both groups hope to pressure Cornice into trading patents with them.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Maxtor bought Quantum, not Seagate.
Anyone know what the actual patent numbers are?
-- not a
Western Digital is suing them too, so obviously something is up. Full disclosure requires me to say that 6 members of my family work for Seagate. The gist I got from the article is that Cornice is infringing on Seagate's patents relating to 1-inch hard disk drives as one of the seven patents alleged to have been infringed. I know how /.ers feel about software patents, but it is right to extend that attitude to the hardware sector? These aren't ones and zeroes, these are platters and heads. The materials cost actual money, and thousands of actual people depend on those materials to make their living. If it was open season on everything, we would have nothing, we would still be in mud huts using two cups and a string to communicate. If there is no incentive for profit, most companies won't bother to make something. That is capitalism, you take the good with the bad.
I hate sigs.
"Just curious, where did your understanding come from?Techies/Engineer from Cornice."
Cool, thanks.
"I am guessing that there will be some level of infringment ( 1 line from the patent vs. the whole thing ) and that is allowing their lawyers to take the case to court."
Yeah, that could very well be. You have to have at least a "good faith" belief that there is infringement in order to avoid sanctions.
"Interesting to hear about that penalty."
FYI, here's the relevant section of Rule 11:
"(2) Nature of Sanction; Limitations. A sanction imposed for violation of this rule shall be limited to what is sufficient to deter repetition of such conduct or comparable conduct by others similarly situated. Subject to the limitations in subparagraphs (A) and (B), the sanction may consist of, or include, directives of a nonmonetary nature, an order to pay a penalty into court, or, if imposed on motion and warranted for effective deterrence, an order directing payment to the movant of some or all of the reasonable attorneys' fees and other expenses incurred as a direct result of the violation.
(A) Monetary sanctions may not be awarded against a represented party for a violation of subdivision (b)(2).
(B) Monetary sanctions may not be awarded on the court's initiative unless the court issues its order to show cause before a voluntary dismissal or settlement of the claims made by or against the party which is, or whose attorneys are, to be sanctioned."
The scary thing (for attorneys, at least) is that the court can order that the Rule 11 sanctions be paid by the attorney and not allow the company that hired the attorney to indemnify the attorney!
"That's not even wrong..." -- Wolfgang Pauli
I didn't include 6,455,845 - Ion packet generation for mass spectrometer because it made no sense as to why this was included.
5,452,159: Magnetic parking device for disk drive
( Sep, '95)
A magnetic parking device for a disk drive includes a magnet and a member for containing the magnetic field produced by the magnet. The magnetic field containing member has an air gap which is substantially parallel to the magnet flux lines of the magnetic field so that there is no fringing of the magnetic field outside of the gap. The device magnetically captures a magnetically permeable capture member provided on the actuator of a disk drive without contacting the capture member and only when the actuator enters the gap in the magnetic field containing member
5,600,506 - Feb, '97
Apparatus and method for determining the position of a transducer relative to a disk surface in a disk drive system
Abstract
A method and system for generating a position signal indicative of the position of a transducer with reference to a fixed reference point on the surface of a disk within a disk drive system. The system is comprised of two major elements. The first element is a disk divided into sectors and has Z data tracks where each sector includes a preamble area that includes a servo band comprised of 0.75*Z consecutive overlapping quadrature servo patterns and gray scale band comprised of 1.5*Z consecutively addressed gray scale areas that have been recorded across all data tracks. The second element is a position generator that generates the position signal from the relative magnitude of each of the four servo bursts of a quadrature servo pattern of the servo band and the gray scale address of the gray scale area of the gray scale band that is read by a transducer when the transducer reads the preamble of a sector.
6,146,754 - Nov, 2000
Substantially isotropic magnetic recording medium comprising a seedlayer
Abstract
A high areal density magnetic recording medium exhibiting high Hc, high SNR, high S* and substantially isotropic magnetic properties is achieved by depositing a thin seedlayer before depositing the underlayer. Embodiments include heating the seedlayer under vacuum in the presence of residual oxygen to induce appropriate crystalline orientation and surface morphology for nucleation and growth of the underlayer and magnetic layer having substantially isotropic magnetic properties.
6,324,054 - Nov, 2001
Wrap around shock absorber for disc drives
Abstract
The shock absorber apparatus for a disc drive is a molded polymeric enclosure adapted to receive and retain a disc drive. One preferred embodiment of the present invention has a shock absorbing material of a first thickness adjacent a critical region of the drive and a second thickness of shock absorbing material adjacent a non-critical region of the disc drive. The first thickness is greater than the second thickness in order to absorb a greater shock load to protect the critical region of the disc drive.
5,596,461 - Jan, '97
Space efficient housing configuration for a disk drive #7
Abstract
A space efficient disk drive housing is described. The disk drive housing comprises a base member having a top, a bottom, and an outer perimeter having length and end portions of preselected dimensions and a cover element comprising a top surface and side walls depending downwardly from the top surface. The cover element has length and width dimensions corresponding to the dimensions of the length and end portions of the base member so that the cover element can be secured to the base member to form the housing. The cover element is provided with a first raised portion to provide a height dimension within the housing sufficient for topmost portions of a spindle motor and head stack assembly of a disk stack assembly of a disk drive. Remaining portions of the top surface of the cover element providing a continuous, single PCB support surface. A set of support posts is provid
Pain is merely failure leaving the body