Digital Home Thoughts: Seagate Tries to Block Import of Cornice Hard Drive Devices, Western Digital Sues for Patent Violations

"Seagate has escalated its legal assault on rival micro hard drive maker Cornice by asking the US International Trade Commission to ban the import into the US of any product that contains a Cornice 1in drive.
If enforced the ban could hit the likes of MP3 player makers Aiwa (ie. Sony), iRiver, Element, Agere, Rio and RCA (ie. Thomson), and other vendors, including Digitalway. Seagate claims Cornice's 1in drive, the Cornice Storage Element (CSE), infringes six of its patents. In June, it slapped its rival with a lawsuit seeking not only a ban on the sale of CSE in the US but the payment of damages."

I can only assume it is very hard for a new manufactuer of hard drives to get started when two giants sue you. Seagate attempting to get the US International Trade Commission to ban the importation of any device that uses one of Cornice's 1-inch hard drives. This is a huge problem if you want any of the many MP3 players that could be banned if ITC approves the request. According to the Register, "a ban could hit the likes of MP3 player makers Aiwa (ie. Sony), iRiver, Element, Agere, Rio and RCA (ie. Thomson), and other vendors, including Digitalway". Yikes... 8O