A Simon Passanante Success Story - IP
In November 2006, Simon Passanante successfully represented Custom Hardware Engineering and Consulting Inc. (CHE) in a complex commercial, intellectual property and antitrust case.
CHE is an independent business that repairs large data storage systems manufactured by Storage Technology Corporation (“STK”). STK and CHE were the only companies in the market that serviced STK storage systems. Although CHE was a smaller business, it offered excellent service at a cost far below that of STK. As a result, a big demand developed for its services.
On Oct. 29, 2002, CHE was sued by STK (now a subsidiary of Sun Microsystems) for patent infringement. Simon۰Passanante reviewed the evidence and concluding that CHE and its owner David York had an antitrust case against STK. The law firm filed a counterclaim for CHE against STK alleging that STK tried to force CHE out of the market. STK’s alleged activities included:
Disparaging CHE in letters and other communications;
Placing code in STK customers’ machines that would not allow anyone other than STK to service the machines unless the customers paid large sums of money to STK;
Replacing customers’ existing machines with new machines for the purpose of making it more difficult for CHE to service the machines;
Ending the sale of information necessary for the service of data storage systems despite the fact that the information had regularly been sold prior to CHE’s arrival on the market.
The complex litigation culminated in a five-week trial in Boston. CHE sought more than $140 million in damages. Just before the jury was to begin deliberations, STK settled with York and CHE. STK agreed to pay CHE a confidential amount, agreed CHE and York had the right to work on STK storage systems, allowed CHE and York to use the tools and information needed to work effectively, and promised to never again sue CHE for its work on STK storage machines. (Past results afford no guarantee of future results. Every case must be judged on its own merits.)
For more about the case of STK v. CHE, click here. See, also, this IPLaw360 article.
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