News
Spectra Logic Prevails Against Overland Storage Patent
November 2014 by Marc Jacob
Spectra Logic announced that it has prevailed in thwarting a patent infringement lawsuit brought in July 2012 by Overland Storage (NASDAQ:OVRL) under a contingency agreement with the law firm of DLA Piper. The outcome reaffirms Spectra Logic’s contentions that the asserted patent claims are invalid based on the prior art.
The patent in question is U.S. Patent No. 6,328,766 (the ’766 patent) directed to storage library partitioning. On Nov 7, 2014 the Patent Trial and Appeal Board in the Patent Office determined that all of the claims covered subject matter was identically disclosed by a prior art IBM 3494 library manual. The Board also disallowed Overland’s attempt to amend its patent claims.
The International Trade Commission had previously found the asserted claims of the ’766 patent to be invalid (announced May 28th, 2013), and now the Patent Office has reached the same conclusion.
Overland’s dismal history in trying to enforce the ’766 patent involves:
– Filing a patent infringement lawsuit against BDT, IBM and Dell in 2010 and then filing an ITC action immediately afterward in an effort to prevent them from importing products allegedly covered by the ’766 patent.
– Revealing during the ITC proceeding that an actual IBM 3494 library was physically in Overland’s engineering department before Overland allegedly came up with its invention and long before Overland filed its patent application.
– Receiving an unfavourable decision of the ITC in May 2013 to the effect that the asserted claims of the ’766 patent are invalid based on the prior art IBM 3494 library.
– Declining to appeal the adverse ITC decision, but instead, continuing its patent infringement lawsuit against BDT and pursuing newly filed patent infringement lawsuits against five other companies, including Spectra Logic.
– Receiving an unfavourable preliminary decision by the Patent Office Board on December 10, 2013 to the effect that all claims of the ’766 patent are identically disclosed by the prior art IBM 3494 library.
– Now receiving a final Board decision to the same effect.
