Hardware
HP sues EMC over storage patents
By Stephen Shankland
Special to ZDNet News
September 30, 2002, 12:05 PM PT
Hewlett-Packard has sued EMC, saying the storage specialist has infringed seven HP patents relating to data storage.
Hewlett-Packard filed the suit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, HP said in a statement. The alleged violations involve EMC's high-end Symmetrix storage systems, its midrange Clariion systems and its TimeFinder software that lets customers replicate data on different storage systems.
The patents involve transferring data between different storage formats, connecting servers to storage systems with switches, handling disk failure, presenting storage system details to servers, improving the efficiency of how arrays of hard drives read and write data, and connecting power to storage systems.
HP and EMC didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.
Patent battles have been cropping up all over the storage industry in recent months. EMC and its top rival, Hitachi Data Systems, have sued each other over patent issues, as have Brocade Communications and McData, which are entangled over storage networking equipment patents. Imation and Quantum, however, settled their suits. |
