Western Digital was ordered to pay $262 million for illegal use of the inventions of an Austrian professor

Western Digital was found guilty of violating two patents by University of Vienna professor in the field of computational physics and physics of functional materials Dieter Suess, owned by MR Technologie, which relate to technology that allows increasing the capacity of hard drives, writes Reuters.

At a hearing last Friday in the US District Court for the Central District of California, a jury announced a verdict in MR Technologie’s lawsuit against Western Digital, according to which it must pay the plaintiff $262.3 million for patent infringement.

Western Digital said on Tuesday it intends to appeal the court’s decision. The company had previously indicated that its technology worked differently than its patented inventions and that the patents were invalid. “MRT’s lawyers credited Dr. Suess quite heavily for the work of thousands of [Western Digital] engineers over decades and across the planet,” Western Digital attorney Douglas Lumish of Latham & Watkins said during closing arguments.

In turn, lawyer Marc Fenster of Russ August & Kabat, who defended the interests of MR Technologie, told Reuters that the verdict confirms that Suess’s invention “truly was a breakthrough in the field of magnetic recording.” During closing arguments Friday, he said that without the use of these inventions, Western Digital would not be able to compete in the market.

MR Technologie sued Western Digital in 2022, accusing it of infringing its patents related to technology that improves data storage.