Seagate Drops Flash Patent Suit Vs. STEC

STEC, Inc. announced the mutual dismissal of the patent infringement lawsuit with Seagate Technology LLC. The lawsuit was initiated by Seagate’s unsubstantiated allegations in April 2008 that STEC misappropriated Seagate’s intellectual property. Following extensive discovery and evaluation of STEC’s intellectual property and technology, Seagate dropped all claims associated with STEC’s purported patent infringement. As part of the dismissal, no money was exchanged and neither party licensed its technology to the other.

"This is an important development in light of the mass adoption of SSDs," said Manouch Moshayedi, chairman and chief executive officer of STEC. "With Seagate having dropped its case against us, we believe the uniqueness of SSD design relative to traditional HDD technologies has been established. We have always contended that SSD does not borrow from existing hard-drive technology but rather offers an all-together new approach to storage. In addition, since STEC plays a major role in the proliferation of SSD technology, we view the dismissal as a vindication of our technology. We have a 15-year history of SSD design and development, over which time we have amassed strong SSD intellectual property. We have always maintained that the allegations brought against us by Seagate were without merit. With this case behind us, we can now optimize our resources to take full advantage of the market opportunities at hand."