Sony takes on Fujifilm in magnetic tape patent suit
Sony has taken on rival Fujifilm in a patent infringement lawsuit centring on magnetic tape media.
Filed at the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida on Thursday, December 15, Sony’s suit accused Fujifilm of infringing four of its patents: US numbers 7,016,137; 6,345,779; 6,896,959; and 7,115,331.
The patents concern magnetic tape media, which are used in a range of equipment, including cassette tapes, floppy disks and videos.
Sony said it has been involved in the development of magnetic tape media and products for reading from, and writing to, such media for over 60 years.
The Linear Tape-Open (LTO) format, specifically designed for computer applications, was developed by the LTO Consortium.
Formed in 1998 by IBM, HP and Seagate (now Quantum), the consortium provides written technical specifications for the LTO magnetic tape data storage format.
In the early 2000s, Sony began “introducing magnetic tape cartridge products in a number of different formats, including tapes compliant with the LTO format specification”.
According to the claim, authorisation to manufacture, sell, and distribute any generation of LTO tape products is “contingent on a participant’s acceptance of the terms and conditions of an agreement”, including requirements to license certain patents.
“Sony understands its licensing obligations under the agreements and accordingly engaged Fujifilm in the negotiation of a cross-licence that would cover Fujifilm’s LTO tape products,” said the suit.
But Fujifilm rejected Sony’s efforts “to work amicably toward a fair and reasonable licensing arrangement” and “initiated numerous infringement actions” against Sony, according to the filing.
Fujifilm is licensed by the LTO Consortium to market and sell every generation of LTO Ultrium tape cartridge, including the current generation, LTO-7.
According to the suit, Fujifilm has also induced infringement by selling the products to third-party distributors, “who correspondingly resell them to end users for use in conjunction with tape drive apparatuses”.
“Fujifilm’s continuing acts of infringement are irreparably harming and causing damage to its direct competitor Sony,” claimed the suit.
Sony is seeking a jury trial, permanent injunction, damages, enhanced damages, attorneys’ fees and further relief that the court may deem just and proper.
