The Litigation Ledger

Emedia Professional, Dec, 1998

Stephen Smith and Dan Fair v. Hewlett-Packard Company

In the end, the plague touched us all ... Following by a few months a widely publicized class action suit filed against Philips Electronics for alleged defects in its CDD2000 series drives, a new suit has been brought against Hewlett-Packard for alleged manufacturing defects in its 4020i and 6020i CD recorders, which are based on the same mechanisms used in the Philips CDD200 series drives. The class action, filed by Stephen Smith and Dan Fair and brought on behalf all purchasers of the 4020i and 6020i drives, alleges that the drives, which were advertised to be able to record up to 650MB of data on a CD-R disc (the discs' full capacity), were unabled to record reliably more than 500MB of data to the discs. The suit contends that HP sold a defective product to thousands of consumers who paid $500 to $900 for the units since the first drives shipped in 1996. The suit demands that HP either refund the customers' money and/or provide them with a functional and reliable CD recorder.

CD ROM-USA Inc. v. Traxdata and CeQuadrat

Developing technology that compresses CD data is no small matter, and one developer of a proprietary data compression tool has taken action to prevent its claim to its own compression technology will not be shrunk through alleged inappropriate distribution. CD ROM-USA, Inc. has filed a federal suit against both Traxdata, Inc. and CeQuadrat for patent infringement. The suit alleges that Traxdata and CeQuadrat are distributing in the U.S. marketplace a CD recorder/recording software bundle featuring a tool compressing data to be recorded to CD-R and accessing that compressing data that is based on a process covered by CD ROM-USA, Inc.'s patent portfolio. Software using the patented process is marketed by CD ROM-USA, Inc. under the trade name CRI-X2 and CRI-X3. CD ROM USA, Inc. seeks a termination of distribution of the infringing products manufactured and distributed by Traxdata and CeQuadrat, and a recall of products shipped in the U.S., market with the allegedly infringing software. Also currently pending is a lawsuit filed by CD ROM-USA against Cummins Engine for infringement of the CRI-X2 patent.

NEATO LLC v. Stomp Inc. and Memorex

NEATO LLC has filed suits in Federal Court in Florida against Stomp Inc. and Memtek Products Inc. for infringement by Stomper and Memorex (respectively) of its patent no. 5,789,051 for CD-ROM jewel case inserts. NEATO, one of the pioneers of the use of paper labels for CD-R labeling, says its patent pertains to a method of scoring and perforating a sheet of stock for easy folding and insertion into the back of a CD jewel case. Company founder Peter Tracy says the company's actions are "absolutely necessary for the protection of our intellectual property.... We were in the patent information business when we invented the NEATO system so we knew the benefits of registering our ideas, not only in the United States but throughout the world," says Tracy. "We've registered patents in upwards of 20 countries around the globe at an enormous cost and we intend to vigorously defend them as they issue."