There has been a material development in the Overland Storage, Inc.
(NASDAQ: OVRL) lawsuit accusing Spectra
Logic of infringing on the company’s 6,328,766 (’766) patent
directed to storage library partitioning.
On December 10, 2013, an Administrative Law Judge at the U.S. Patent
Office found that there “is a reasonable likelihood that Spectra Logic
would prevail in establishing un-patentability of claims 1-11 of the
’766 patent” – i.e., the subject matter of every one of the claims of
the ’766 patent was identically disclosed in a manual for a prior art
IBM 3494 library.
Spectra Logic’s general counsel, Brett Huston, was unsurprised by this
development and views the Overland lawsuit as unwarranted. “We initiated
the Patent Office proceeding because we believe Overland’s patent is
invalid. In fact, Spectra Logic publicly announced library partitioning
over a year prior to the ‘766 patent filing.”
“We also found it interesting that Overland’s engineering department had
possession of an IBM 3494 library and was instructed in the use of the
library before Overland supposedly came up with the same partitioning
idea,” said Huston.
Mr. Huston also commented on where the case is likely to go from here.
“Overland's case against Spectra Logic has been dealt a devastating
blow. After the International Trade Commission found the asserted claims
of the ’766 patent invalid (announced May 28th, 2013), and
now the Patent Office has reached the same conclusion, Overland and its
attorneys would be reckless at best in pursuing the infringement
litigation against Spectra Logic.” Mr. Huston also suggested that
"Spectra Logic might take a close look at whether its patent portfolio
covers Overland’s products."
More information about Spectra Logic Corporation is available here.
Spectra and Spectra Logic are registered trademarks of Spectra Logic
Corporation. All rights reserved worldwide.
Copyright Business Wire 2013