Seagate ups the ante in Cornice lawsuit

Hard disk drive maker Seagate Technology hard disc drives has taken its legal fight with fellow hard disk drive manufacturer Cornice to another level by filing a patent infringement complaint against its rival with the U.S. International Trade Commission.

Two weeks ago, Seagate filed a patent infringement lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, alleging infringement by Cornice of six United States patents that relate to several areas of disk drive technology. As part of this lawsuit, Seagate is seeking monetary damages and a permanent injunction that bars Cornice from making, using, importing, offering to sell, or selling the allegedly infringing products in the United States.

Now Seagate is seeking an order from the U.S. International Trade Commission to exclude Cornice disc drives and any systems or products using or containing Cornice disc drives from entry into the United States.

"We believe very strongly in competing in the marketplace based on the innovation, reliability, performance and quality of our products," said Bill Watkins, Seagate president, at the time of the initial court filing. "However, we cannot allow the competitive advantage we've established through our long-term investment in R&D to be unfairly attacked by those who would illegally infringe on our technology portfolio and intellectual property."

Cornice would not comment on the litigation.

Cornice manufactures 1 inch disk drives, which are being used in items such as digital cameras, mobile phones and MP3 players. Seagate recently introduced a disk drive of its own with a 1 inch form factor.

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