Western Digital Convinces Judge to Throw Out $552.7M Patent Award

Data storage provider Western Digital has convinced a California federal judge to reduce a $552.7 million award against it in a patent dispute over data encryption to just $1, according to a court order made public on Monday.

U.S. District Judge James Selna said the award for patent licensing company SPEX Technologies wrongly included damages for aspects of Western Digital’s products that did not infringe the patent, wiping out a $315.7 million jury verdict plus an additional $237 million that he had previously determined Western Digital owed SPEX in interest.

Spokespeople and attorneys for the companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the decision.

San Jose, California-based SPEX was originally formed to license technology from Spyrus, a cryptography company that developed technology for encrypting sensitive communications. SPEX said in its 2016 lawsuit that Western Digital’s self-encrypting hard drive products infringed a Spyrus patent covering data encryption innovations.

The lawsuit alleged that Western Digital data storage devices, including its Ultrastar, My Book and My Passport products, infringed the patent. Western Digital denied the allegations.

A jury in Santa Ana, California, ruled for SPEX last October. Selna said in his decision made public Monday that SPEX could only receive “nominal” damages for Western Digital’s infringement, slashing the award to $1.

(Reporting by Brittain in Washington; Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Aurora Ellis)