Hard times for hard drives: US may ban popular imports

[Daniel ~]

Written by Daniel
Thursday, 11 October 2007
Hard times for hard drives: US may ban popular imports
ARS Technica
By Jacqui Cheng | Published: October 11, 2007 - 11:20AM CT

The International Trade Commission (ITC) has announced that it plans to begin an investigation into several companies that either make or use certain hard drives. In a statement issued yesterday, the ITC said that the hard drives in question are alleged to infringe on patents owned by California residents Steven and Mary Reiber... Front Page

[cloasters]

If someone's patent has been pirated they deserve their day in court. Sheesh, this is not a good time for me to be spending anything on PC gear. However, HDD prices could soar on this news. Oh joy.

[Gizmo]

Originally Posted by cloasters

If someone's patent has been pirated they deserve their day in court.

Agreed, if it's a reasonable patent. Unfortunately, our patent system is such a mess right now that a guy could probably patent spit-balls if he worded it right.

I've no idea if such is the case here, although what little I've read tends to make me suspect that it has some real validity.

[Daniel ~]

Once it comes down to/if it comes down to, settle or be ban from our markets, I'm betting they settle. It's not like there's ever any princibles involved!":O}