Western Digital owes $315.7 million for infringing data security patent, US jury says (updated)

Western Digital

18/10/2024 22:37

(Adds comment from plaintiff's side in paragraph 4, request for
comment to Western Digital in paragraph 5)
    By Blake Brittain
       Oct 18 - Data storage provider Western Digital  WDC.O 
must pay $315.7 million in damages for violating a patent
owner's rights in data security technology, a jury in California
federal court said on Friday.
    The jury determined that several Western Digital
self-encrypting hard drive products infringe a SPEX Technologies
patent covering data encryption innovations, a SPEX attorney
said in an email.
    San Jose, California-based SPEX sued Western Digital in
2016. SPEX said it bought the patent at issue from Spyrus, a
cryptography company that developed the technology for
encrypting sensitive communications.
    Spyrus co-founder Sue Pontius said she was grateful to the
jury for the verdict. SPEX's lead attorney Marc Fenster said the
verdict was "a vindication of Sue Pontius and her perseverance."
        Spokespeople and attorneys for Western Digital did not
immediately respond to a request for comment.
  
    The lawsuit said Western Digital data storage devices
including its Ultrastar, My Book and My Passport products
infringed the patent. Western Digital denied the allegations.
    In July, a different jury in the same Santa Ana, California,
court said Western Digital owed more than $262 million to
another company for infringing patents related to increasing
hard drive storage capacity.

 (Reporting by Blake Brittain in Washington; Editing by Jamie
Freed and Richard Chang)
 ((blake.brittain@tr.com; +1 (202) 938-5713))