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Western Digital faces $262 million in damages over patent lawsuit ruling

The lawsuit was brought against Western Digital by German tech firm MR Technologie, which claimed WD violated patents filed by MRT company owner Dieter Suess.

TJ Denzer

August 16, 2024 3:08 PM

Image via Western Digital

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It would appear that Western Digital will be forced to pay a hefty sum to a company and inventor whose patents it may have infringed upon. Western Digital recently came up short in a court ruling in which German tech company MR Technologie (MRT) alleged that Western Digital had infringed upon several of its patents without authorization or compensation. MRT had launched a lawsuit against Western Digital in 2022 and a California jury has now decided that Western Digital did violate patents, with a ruling that the company will face around $262 million in damages for its infringement.

The results of the lawsuit against Western Digital came this week, as reported by Blocks & Files. The lawsuit was launched in August 2022 with MRT claiming that Western Digital had unlawfully used technology developed by inventor and MRT company owner Dieter Suess, who filed U.S. Patent Nos. 9,928,864 and 11,138,997, titled “Multilayer exchange spring recording media.” The patents refer to a method in which hard drive disks use directionally dependent magnetic effects in multi-layer recording record data to the drive using a “spring recording” effect.

MRT claimed Western Digital had been using Suess’ patent technology in almost all of its disk drive products since 2018. WD claimed that it utilized nearly 400 research scientists to create its own similar technology separately and without any connection to Suess’ patented work. The jury on the trial leaned in MRT’s favor, not accepting that Western Digital’s technology was entirely without reference to Suess’ work.

Western Digital said in a statement passed to Reuters that it intends to appeal the decision, but if the company can’t find a more favorable verdict at a higher court, it may be in the hole for hundreds of millions. Stay tuned to Shacknews and the Western Digital topic for further updates on this story as they drop.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.