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."

Comments

if you can't innovate then litigate

[Anonymous Coward]

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

Western Digital too

[Thiago Ize]

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...

Re: Western Digital too

[randyest]

Why should you feel dirty for thinking properly and lauding the use of patents in the way they were intended to be used? It's ok to stray away from the herd, you know, especially if the other sheep are being dumb and blindly following the blind sheep at the front of the pack.

Which happens sometimes here on /. of course. But I expect to see mostly posts like yours -- this suit is wholly warranted, Cornice is stealing, patents can and should be used to protect against this sort of thing.

I think most of us realize that inane blanket statements like "patents are bad, mmkay?" are useless and silly. In this case, patents are good. Even if some of the patents are teh 3vil "software patents" related to algorithms in the firmware or some such (I don't know, neither the linked info nor Seagate's website give any details.)

Or maybe you were just joking. If so, I apologize for my lack of a sense of humor -- it's early and I was out late :)

..and I'll bet these patents...

[Anonymous Coward]

...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.

Re:Couldn't this hurt the US?

[randyest]

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.