Pure Storage agrees $30m patent litigation settlement with Dell

Pure Storage and EMC have agreed to settle all litigation between the two data storage companies. EMC completed a $60 billion merger with Dell last month.

Pure Storage said in an 8-K filing: “The specific terms of the settlement are confidential, but include a payment of $30 million to Dell, the dismissal of all litigation between the parties, mutual releases, and a license to the disputed patent.”

EMC sued Pure Storage in 2013, seeking more than $80 million in damages.  

A District of Delaware jury awarded EMC $14 million in patent damages in March. The judge had found that Pure Storage infringed a patent related to de-duplication technology. The jury found this patent valid but found that Pure Storage did not infringe two other patents related to de-duplication and RAID storage.

In September, the $14 million verdict was set aside, with the judge ordering a new trial to determine whether the patent is valid. The judge found that the jury did not properly consider whether the patent at issue was invalid because of an earlier patent issued to Sun Microsystems. “Our view remains that EMC ‘s approach to market competition is to compete in courtrooms rather than the marketplace,” commented Pure Storage at the time.

Choate Hall & Stewart was representing Dell and Cooley was representing Pure Storage ahead of the trial.

The award was the 12^th highest patent damages award so far in 2016. Patent damages awards are often vacated, however. For example, in addition to the Pure Storage award, the top two awards this year have already been scrapped.

At the end of July, the Eastern District of Texas vacated Virnet’s $626 million damages award against Apple. The only other nine-figure patent award this year was the $200 million awarded to Merck against Gilead in a case involving patents for Hepatitis C drugs. A Northern District of California federal judge in June ruled that Merck forfeited its right to assert its drug patents against Gilead because of "unclean hands" and "numerous unconscionable acts".