Spectra Logic Files Response to Lawsuit by Overland

There has been a material development in the Overland Storage, Inc.‘s lawsuit accusing Spectra Logic Corp. of infringing on the company’s 6,328,766 (‘766) patent directed to storage library partitioning.

On December 10, 2013, an Administrative Law Judge at the U.S. Patent Office found that there “is a reasonable likelihood that Spectra Logic would prevail in establishing un-patentability of claims 1-11 of the ‘766 patent” – i.e., the subject matter of every one of the claims of the ‘766 patent was identically disclosed in a manual for a prior art IBM 3494 library.

Spectra Logic’s general counsel, Brett Huston, was unsurprised by this development and views the Overland lawsuit as unwarranted: “We initiated the Patent Office proceeding because we believe Overland’s patent is invalid. In fact, Spectra Logic publicly announced library partitioning over a year prior to the ‘766 patent filing.”

“We also found it interesting that Overland’s engineering department had possession of an IBM 3494 library and was instructed in the use of the library before Overland supposedly came up with the same partitioning idea,” said Huston.

Huston also commented on where the case is likely to go from here: “Overland’s case against Spectra Logic has been dealt a devastating blow. After the International Trade Commission found the asserted claims of the ‘766 patent invalid (announced May 28th, 2013), and now the Patent Office has reached the same conclusion, Overland and its attorneys would be reckless at best in pursuing the infringement litigation against Spectra Logic.”

Huston also suggested: “Spectra Logic might take a close look at whether its patent portfolio covers Overland’s products.”

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