US may ban popular hard drives Vista News Discuss US may ban popular hard drives in the Windows Vista forums; Hard times for hard drives: US may ban popular imports Yesterday, October 11, 2007, The International Trade Commission (ITC) has announced that it plans to begin an investigation into several ...

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Hard times for hard drives: US may ban popular imports
Yesterday, October 11, 2007,
The International Trade Commission (ITC) has announced that it plans to begin an investigation into several companies that either make or use certain hard drives. In a statement issued yesterday, the ITC said that the hard drives in question are alleged to infringe on patents owned by California residents Steven and Mary Reiber. The two filed a complaint with the ITC in September, saying that the importation of the hard drives violates section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930.

There are currently five companies being investigated by the ITC, including Western Digital, Seagate, Toshiba, Hewlett-Packard, and Dell. All five companies either manufacture drives that use "dissipative ceramic bonding tips," or sell products that use such hard drives. These parts are used to bond electrical wires within the hard drive—while the ITC doesn't specify exactly which patents the technology allegedly infringes on, two patents that are owned by the Reibers, titled "Dissipative ceramic bonding tool tip," appear to fit the description.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post...r-imports.html