EMC v Zerto – Update
Post by Ziv Kedem, Zerto CEO
I wanted to take to the Zerto blog to post an update on the status of our lawsuit with EMC. In July 2012, EMC sued Zerto, claiming patent infringement on a few of the technologies Zerto uses for our Zerto Virtual Replication product. On March 31, 2016, the judge made a final ruling on all of the post-trial motions and as we expected, his final ruling stayed very close to the May 8, 2015, jury verdict.
- There were five patents involved in this case (11 claims altogether). The judge did not find that Zerto infringed on all claims of the five patents involved in the case, but found in favor of EMC on five of the 11 claims made by EMC on those patents.
- EMC was awarded approximately $580K in damages. This cost does not pose any risk to Zerto’s continued operations and is certainly not material to EMC.
- EMC claimed that one of the patents was willfully infringed and the judge agreed with the jury that there was no willful infringement.
- Importantly, EMC’s request for an injunction (for Zerto to either stop selling or for Zerto to have to modify our product) was denied.
This outcome was welcome, as the Judge’s ruling provides certainty that Zerto can continue to focus on product execution. EMC’s claims that there should be uncertainty about Zerto’s product line have proved to be untrue.
What does this change for Zerto? Very little. We will continue to focus on the great success that we have had building the best products we can. Although Zerto continues to believe it does not infringe on any EMC patent, we are pleased to have the Judge’s ruling behind us. The lawsuit does not slow us down, nor did it ever. We are glad that the ruling favors innovation and a healthy marketplace.
I would like to thank all our customers, partners and investors for their continued support, enabling us to maintain our strong global growth. We are determined to keep delivering the best products in the market, driving towards our vision of uninterrupted IT for business and people.
