EMC triumphed in court
Wednesday when a judge barred Cary, N.C.-basedTriangle Technology
Services from using some of its copyrighted software and trade secrets
related to the Hopkinton, Mass. firm’s service business.
A judge of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina
issued a permanent injunction against Triangle for using EMC’s maintenance
software, training materials, engineering documents and other EMC
intellectual property without EMC’s consent.
EMC spokesperson Greg Eden would not provide specifics as to how Triangle committed the infractions, but said the software whose copyright was infringed on includes EMC’s diagnosis tools for maintaining computer systems.
Triangle Technology spokesperson Mindy Barbee said EMC and Triangle entered into a settlement agreement late last month whereby Triangle will exit the EMC support services business.
Triangle’s home page boasts that it is “the foremost provider of EMC maintenance
support services as well as one of the leading independent re-marketers of
used EMC equipment.”
Triangle established a maintenance support services program designed to support third party maintenance companies that wanted to provide service for EMC equipment in 1996. Triangle’s program provided 2nd level technical support, spare parts, remote support capabilities, and technical training to third party maintenance companies.
EMC Senior Vice President and General Counsel Paul Dacier commented in a
company press statement: “This case should send a clear message to those in
the storage industry hoping to illegally prosper from our investment in
intellectual property… “We will do what it takes to protect EMC’s
intellectual property investment for the benefit of our customers and
shareholders.”
EMC said it made the claims against Triangle to stop the unauthorized use of
its intellectual property in early 2002.
EMC has been busy in court as of late. On Sept. 30, the storage software leader entered into a patent infringment legal battle with systems vendor HP.
HP fired the first salvo, claiming that EMC product lines contained technology that violated seven patents held by HP. HP is seeking unspecified monetary damages and wants a permanent injunction of EMC’s Symmetrix, Clariion and TimeFinder products.
EMC countered by filing its own patent infringement complaint against HP in US District Court in Worcester, charging that certain HP products infringe six of its patents.
EMC Wins Permanent Injunction Ruling
