EMC和Flash启动纯存储之间的法律战争升级为专利侵权和非法获取存储阵列以用于知识产权的收费。
的fight has exposed competitive tensions surrounding all-flash arrays, which are expected to play a growing role in data centers as enterprises seek faster data access and more efficient storage platforms. Pure is a specialist in all-flash gear that started shipping in 2011, while the venerable EMC is aggressively pursuing the market through its acquired XtremIO division.
EMC sued Pure earlier this month in a Massachusetts federal court, charging that the startup hired 44 of its former employees and got them to hand over confidential EMC information in violation of their employment agreements. On Tuesday, Pure denied those charges and filed a counter-complaint that alleges EMC secretly took a Pure product across the country and into XtremIO headquarters. Only hours after that filing occurred, EMC sued Pure in a different court for alleged patent infringement.
Both companies say their rival's actions were part of an ongoing pattern of unfair competition. EMC's suit over the 44 former employees followed a series of such suits it had filed against former employees. This was the first time it had gone after Pure itself.
“纯粹存储的活动和指导是系统和非法策略的一部分，可以识别，目标和转换纯粹的存储益处，因为纯粹的存储在企业存储市场中作为”创新者“寻求品牌本身，显然是如此其它是IPO前战略的一部分，“EMC在11月5日投诉中表示。该公司表示，数十名前EMC员工偷了“数万页”的机密信息。
Pure has countered its larger rival's charges with its official denial as well as blog posts by its CEO, Scott Dietzen. Writing on Tuesday, Dietzen said "a vendor harassing former employees that freely choose to join a competitor," among other things, should be "out of bounds" in the rivalry between the companies.
但纯粹的反诉更加严厉。的startup charges that a Massachusetts system integrator bought a Pure Storage FlashArray FA-320 device in October or early November 2012, saying it would be used by one of its subsidiaries in New Hampshire. Instead, the company shipped the array to EMC, with which it had a longtime relationship. Specifically, the box was shipped to the Silicon Valley headquarters of the XtremIO division, at EMC's expense, Pure said. XtremIO's own all-flash array was still under development at that time. EMC even used its own corporate UPS account number for the shipment, according to the counter-complaint.
系统集成商，大陆资源（康明斯），已安排纯工程师在新罕布什尔州地区设置系统，纯粹说。相反，它隐藏了设备已被移动到EMC并纯化以帮助通过视频会议在XtremIO处设置阵列。EMC员工秘密地参加了安装，纯粹说。
In early January, after Pure started pressing ConRes about where the array was, EMC sent it back to the New Hampshire facility, where Pure employees picked it up but "found the machine damaged to such an extent that it could not be reused or resold," the counter-complaint said. In the month or so that EMC had the array, it had accessed and retained a copy of the boot drive containing proprietary software, Pure said.
不久之后，涉及它已将阵列发送到EMC，并且据纯粹，EMC录取了它已复制启动驱动器。“EMC还承认，它从它的访问和使用产品和软件中了解到，”纯粹在其索赔中表示。
该集体违反了其与综合综合症的最终用户协议，以及纯粹的索赔。从集团发出反对EMC的投诉包括违反合同和挪用商业秘密的违法行为。
EMC's action against Pure in the Delaware court on Tuesday is conventional, by comparison. It accuses Pure of using patented EMC technologies, including innovations in data deduplication and in scheduling read and write operations for solid-state storage. The startup did so in a bid to catch up with EMC, which has been developing flash storage since 2005, EMC said.
In a statement, EMC reiterated its allegations against Pure.
"The facts remain - Pure Storage has waged a deliberate, unlawful campaign to steal EMC intellectual property. This latest patent infringement lawsuit is further evidence that Pure Storage has engaged in unauthorized use of EMC's proprietary and patented technology. Again, we are simply taking the necessary legal action to protect EMC's rights."
斯蒂芬·劳森covers mobile, storage and networking technologies forIDG新闻服务。Follow Stephen on Twitter at@sdlawsonmedia。斯蒂芬的电子邮件地址是stephen_lawson@idg.com