EMC, Hitachi In Legal Skirmish

EMC is suing Hitachi Data Systems and parent company Hitachi Ltd. in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts for allegedly infringing on six patents related to storage management software, data migration and data storage on mainframes. Products named in the EMC suit include Hitachi's Lightning 9900 array, which is also rebranded as Sun Microsystems' StorEdge 9900 and Hewlett-Packard's XP512.

EMC has also filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) to prevent Hitachi from importing into the United States any products that use the six patents.

Hitachi fired back last Thursday with a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma alleging that EMC has infringed on eight patents owned by the Tokyo-based vendor and Hitachi Computer Products (America).

Kip Lindberg, vice president of enterprise sales at Ncell Systems, a Minnetonka, Minn.-based Sun solution provider, said he has alternatives for much of

the storage management software identified in the lawsuits. "If the courts side with EMC, all they'll probably do is assess Hitachi for all the systems that

have been installed so far," he said.

A larger concern would be if EMC were to win an exclusion order forbidding the import of Hitachi products using the patents under question, said Lindberg. "If that happens, there goes Sun's high-end storage strategy, and HP's as well," he said.

Ronald Cass, dean of the Boston University School of Law and former vice chairman of the ITC, said the commission is almost certain to take up the EMC case. EMC's lawsuit could be set aside until the complaint is considered, he said.

Possible outcomes include a permanent injunction preventing Hitachi from importing some of its storage products, or a temporary injunction, with EMC putting up a sum of money to compensate Hitachi if Hitachi is exonerated, said Cass.