SSDs : Seagate attacks STEC

While Seagate was set to give its quarterly financial results yesterday, they also just announced having filed a lawsuit in a California federal court against STEC, an SSD manufacturer, for violating four of its patents related to error correction, "memory-backup" and memory/PC interfaces.

This isn’t too surprising because earlier this year the firm’s CEO, William Watkins, declared that Seagate and Western Digital owned a number of patents whose range is big enough to include SSDs. Curiously, Seagate declared that they previously looked for a friendly solution with several SSD manufacturers, although, Patrick Wilkison, STEC’s vice-president marketing & business development, affirms that they were never contacted before the start of judicial proceedings.

This legal action could have the significant consequence of removal of this manufacturer’s SSDs from the American market and STEC’s response was quick. They accuse Seagate of wanting to stifle the growing success of SSDs, a market in which they are behind, and are more looking to eliminate a competitor than protect their intellectual property.

If Seagate wins or finds a friendly solution with STEC, there is a strong likelihood that other SSDs makers will reach for their wallets; however, it’s difficult to estimate the impact this could have on prices.