Officials of Hitachi Ltd. announced today that they will “vigorously defend” their storage products against patent infringement claims made last week by archrival EMC Corp.
EMC claimed that Tokyo-based Hitachi and its HDS division, of Santa Clara, Calif., infringed on six EMC patents related to remote data copying and data replication. EMC also claims that although Hitachis products did not sell well, Hitachi sales staff used the allegedly infringing products to unfairly win sales.
Hitachi hit back today saying in a prepared statement that EMC, of Hopkinton, Mass., is “apparently unwilling to compete head-to-head in the market place.”
“Hitachi believes EMCs allegations are without merit,” the statement continued. “EMCs actions serve only to hinder fair competition in the market and harm the interests of consumers.”
Hitachi officials were not available for further comment.