The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California has made a significant ruling adjustment in the patent infringement lawsuit between Western Digital Corporation (referred to as WD) and SPEX Technologies. The lawsuit originated from WD's alleged infringement of SPEX's patent number 6,088,802. Previously, the jury had ruled that WD was required to pay SPEX $316 million in damages and $237 million in interest, totaling over $553 million (equivalent to approximately 39.65 billion yuan at the current exchange rate).

Appeal and Ruling Adjustment

WD appealed against this judgment. During the appeal process, although the court upheld the guilty verdict of WD's infringement, it ultimately reduced the compensation amount from over $500 million to just $1. In his ruling, Judge James V. Selna pointed out that SPEX's damages theory had changed during the litigation process due to the unavailability of certain evidence and theories. Judge Selna concluded that, based on the existing evidence, the court could not determine a reasonable patent royalty rate, and thus, a nominal compensation amount of $1 was awarded.

The inability of SPEX to prove the specific economic losses it suffered due to the infringement was the primary reason for the substantial reduction in the compensation amount. This outcome was mainly because SPEX's damages expert testimony was excluded from the trial, leaving SPEX to rely on non-expert witnesses to prove the losses it suffered due to WD's infringement. Due to the lack of expert analysis support, the court ultimately decided that it could not grant the $553 million in damages that SPEX had previously requested.

Case Follow-up

The court has given SPEX seven days from June 16, 2025, to respond to this ruling. However, as of now, SPEX has not made any statements regarding this matter. Despite WD's defeat in this patent infringement case and the determination that its Ultrastar, My Book, and My Passport series of storage devices infringed on SPEX's patent rights, the company still views this ruling as a significant victory because it will virtually pay no compensation for this infringement.

However, this is not the only major patent infringement lawsuit that WD is facing. In August 2024, WD lost another patent infringement case, with the court ordering it to pay $262 million (equivalent to approximately 18.79 billion yuan at the current exchange rate) in compensation to a German scientist. This was because WD was found to have used an HDD recording technology that could increase the density of hard disk drives by up to three times. Currently, this case is still in the appeal process, and whether WD will have to pay this substantial compensation remains to be determined by the court's final decision.

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