Western Digital & IBM Will Share Technology in New Cross License Agreement
It’s no secret that IBM dominates all other companies in the world in terms of the number of patents that the company has been awarded.
Western Digital, one of the major players in the storage market, has racked up over 10,000 patents and patent applications of its own relating to storage technology.
Both companies have reached an agreement where Western Digital will be able to use more than 100 of IBM’s patents within their products, while simultaneously entering into a cross-license agreement.
Western Digital expects to use the patents to create distributed storage, object storage and emerging non-volatile memory. This next wave of innovation will allow Western Digital to stay competitive in a market increasingly being spurred by data center innovations.
“This agreement reflects our continued focus on innovation and sets the stage for even more rapid advancement and commercialization of new data storage solutions,” says Mike Cordano, President and COO at Western Digital.
“We are building on Western Digital and IBM’s long-standing relationship and look forward to future collaborations and business opportunities,” adds Cordano.
CloudWedge has recently noted that IBM has led the tech world in patents issued on an annual basis over the past 23 years. In fact, it is reported that IBM was awarded 7,355 patents in 2015 alone.
IBM recently reported its revenues, in which they noted a 15th straight quarter where revenues declined. If IBM continues its strategy of making deals for some of its patents, IBM could very well recoup much the time, money and effort they have invested in research and development while finding new revenue streams to include within the investors’ quarterly report.
“This agreement with Western Digital illustrates the value of patented IBM inventions and demonstrates our leadership in licensing access to our broad patent portfolio. We look forward to a productive relationship with Western Digital,” says William LaFontaine, the General Manager for intellectual property for IBM.
