Western Digital acquires 100 storage patents from IBM

Western Digital has acquired more than 100 patent assets from IBM. The parties have also entered into a patent cross-license agreement. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Patents acquired by Western Digital are in distributed storage, object storage and emerging non-volatile memory. Western Digital says it expects the IP to “further strengthen its technology leadership position” and “drive value creation for the company and its customers”.

The patents will augment Western Digital’s existing portfolio of more than 10,000 patents and patent applications.

“This agreement reflects our continued focus on innovation and sets the stage for even more rapid advancement and commercialisation of new data storage solutions,” said Mike Cordano, president and chief operating officer, Western Digital.

“We are building on Western Digital and IBM’s long-standing relationship and look forward to future collaborations and business opportunities.”

“This agreement with Western Digital illustrates the value of patented IBM inventions and demonstrates our leadership in licensing access to our broad patent portfolio. We look forward to a productive relationship with Western Digital,” said William LaFontaine, general manager, intellectual property for IBM.

IBM has led the annual list of US patent recipients for 23 consecutive years.

CIOs and IT decision makers say reliability trumps cost when it comes to making data storage purchasing decisions, according to research research from Western Digital.

When given a choice among five criteria, 39 percent of IT decision makers cited reliability as the most important factor in purchasing data storage compared to only 25 percent that mentioned cost.

@AntonySavvas