Hewlett Packard Enterprise sues China's Inspur over server patents

Inspur Digital Enterprise Technology

15/04/2024 23:09

By Blake Brittain
       April 15 (Reuters) - Hewlett Packard Enterprise  HPE.N 
sued Chinese cloud-computing company Inspur Group  0596.HK  in
California federal court on Monday, claiming Inspur's products
infringe five HPE patents related to computing technology.
    HPE said in the lawsuit that Inspur, which the Biden
Administration added to a U.S. trade blacklist last year, sells
several models of servers, storage devices, networking devices
and software that violate its patent rights.
    The lawsuit also said that Inspur sells the products through
a U.S. subsidiary, Silicon Valley-based Aivres Systems, that it
renamed to avoid negative publicity from the export ban.  
    Representatives for Inspur did not immediately respond to a
request for comment on the lawsuit. HPE spokesperson Adam Bauer
said that the company filed the lawsuit to "defend HPE's
leadership position resulting from its substantial R&D
investments."
    Inspur is a major provider of cloud-computing servers used
to power technology including artificial intelligence. The U.S.
Department of Commerce banned American entities from exporting
products to Inspur last March and alleged that it had been
acquiring U.S. goods to support China's military-modernization
efforts.
    HPE, which split off from Hewlett Packard in 2015, also
makes cloud-computing servers. Its lawsuit said that Inspur
violates its patent rights in data storage, networking and other
computing innovations.
    The lawsuit said that HPE made "multiple attempts" to meet
with Inspur about the alleged infringement without ever
receiving a response. HPE asked the court for an unspecified
amount of money damages and a court order blocking Inspur from
infringing its patents.
    
    The case is Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co v. Inspur Group
Co, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California,
No. 5:24-cv-02220.
    For HPE: Sean Cunningham, Erin Gibson, Brent Yamashita,
Helena Kiepura and Amy Lydon of DLA Piper
    For Inspur: attorney information not yet available

 (Reporting by Blake Brittain in Washington)
 ((blake.brittain@tr.com; +1 (202) 938-5713;))