By Chelsea Stevenson
Overland Storage Inc. (OVRL) said the U.S. International Trade
Commission found products made by International Business Machines
Corp. (IBM) and Dell Inc. (DELL) infringe one of its patents for
partitioning media elements.
Shares of Overland, which offers data-protection systems,
climbed 11% to $2.26 in premarket trading. The stock is down 32% in
the past 12 months.
In its initial determination, the ITC said two IBM and two Dell
tape libraries were found to infringe all of Overland's claims. The
patent in question relates to automated data storage and retrieval
methods for allowing two computers to store and retrieve data
without interfering with one another.
The patent investigation took 21 months. Overland had filed
patent-infringement lawsuits in a Southern California district
court against seven companies, including IBM, Dell and Quantum
Corp. (QTM). The company had said recent reports indicate the
tape-storage market will surpass $12 billion between 2005 and 2015,
and the seven companies represent about 40% of the market.
Overland said it has petitioned the full commission for a review
of some of the initial determination's findings. If the commission
decides to review the matter, it is expected to issue its decision
in a final determination by Oct. 22. Upon completion of the ITC
case, Overland plans to pursue monetary damages against BDT, the
manufacturer of the tapes.
Overland provides services for primary, nearline, offline and
cloud data storage. The company reported in May a wider loss and
lower year-over-year revenue for its fiscal third quarter, though
it posted higher sales sequentially for the first time in five
years.
Write to Chelsea Stevenson at chelsea.stevenson@dowjones.com
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