WD has been ordered to pay $262M in damages after a patent infringement case relating to hard disk drive (HDD) recording technologies concluded. A jury in California agreed with MR Technologie of Germany’s lawyers, who claimed that WD flagrantly applied patented IP “on a massive scale.” WD is accused of using this tech, starting from 2018, to boost the areal density of its HDDs from about 300 Gbit/sq in to 1,000 Gbit/sq in, reports Blocks and Files. However, WD insists its 400 researchers invented the areal density boosting tech it used independently, and it immediately asserted that it would appeal the decision.
MR Technologie (MRT) is owned by Dieter Suess, a professor and head of the Physics of Functional Materials at the University of Vienna. Two patents were in contention during the lawsuit, U.S. Patent No. 9,928,864 and U.S. Patent No. 11,138,997.
