Western Digital patent verdict grows to $552.7 mln after ruling on interest

Western Digital

08/01/2025 22:50

By Blake Brittain
       Jan 8 - Data storage provider Western Digital  WDC.O 
must pay SPEX Technologies more than $237 million in interest on
top of $316 million in damages that a jury awarded to SPEX in a
patent infringement lawsuit last year, a California federal
judge said on Wednesday.
    U.S. District Judge James Selna agreed with SPEX that
Western Digital owed the interest on sales of infringing
products that began years before SPEX filed its 2016 lawsuit,
raising the total award to $552.7 million.
    Attorneys for the companies and spokespeople for Western
Digital did not immediately respond to requests for comment on
the decision.
    San Jose, California-based SPEX said in its lawsuit that
Western Digital's self-encrypting hard drive products infringed
one of its patents covering data encryption innovations. SPEX
said it bought the patent at issue from Spyrus, a cryptography
company that developed the technology for encrypting sensitive
communications.
    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.
    A jury in Santa Ana, California, ruled for SPEX in October
saying Western Digital owed $315.7 million in damages. SPEX
later the same month requested pre-judgment interest on the
jury's award.
    Western Digital opposed the request in a November court
filing. It called the verdict a "massive windfall for SPEX that
cannot stand as a matter of patent law and of due process" and
said it would ask the court to overturn it. 
    A different jury in the same court said in July that Western
Digital owed more than $262 million to another company for
infringing patents related to increasing hard drive storage
capacity. Western Digital has asked Selna to throw out the
verdict in that case.
    The case is SPEX Technologies Inc v. Western Digital Corp,
U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, No.
8:16-cv-01799.
    For SPEX: Marc Fenster, Benjamin Wang, Reza Mirzaie, Paul
Kroeger, Minna Jay, Jacob Buczko and Andrew Weiss of Russ August
& Kabat
    For Western Digital: Daniel Thomasch, Jason Lo, Stuart
Rosenberg, Kieran Kieckhefer and Frank Cote of Gibson Dunn &
Crutcher
    
    Read more:
    Western Digital owes $315.7 million for infringing data
security patent, US jury says
    Western Digital owes $262 mln in hard-drive patent case,
jury says

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