A court in California slashed Western Digital's compensation for infringing SPEX Technologies patents from US$553 million (approximately RMB 3.96 billion) to US$1.The lawsuit stemmed from Western Digital's alleged infringement of SPEX Technologies' patents. The jury initially awarded Western Digital $316 million in damages, plus $237 million in interest, for a total of $553 million.
Western Digital subsequently appealed this decision, and the court upheld Western Digital's determination of infringement liability against SPEX Technologies when hearing the appeal.
However, because SPEX failed to provide sufficient evidence to prove the specific economic losses it suffered due to the infringement, the court ultimately reduced the compensation amount to a symbolic $1.
Primarily because SPEX's expert damages testimony was excluded at trial, the plaintiffs had to rely on non-expert witnesses to prove the value of their losses resulting from Western Digital's infringement.
Since the expert analysis on behalf of SPEX was dismissed, the court gave the plaintiffs seven days starting on June 16, 2025, to respond, but the company has yet to issue a statement on the matter.
In the final ruling, the judge pointed out that because SPEX failed to provide a reasonable basis for calculating royalties during the litigation process, the court was unable to determine a reasonable amount of compensation.
Although Western Digital lost the lawsuit and its Ultrastar, My Book and My Passport series of storage products were found to infringe SPEX's patents, the company ultimately did not have to pay any substantial compensation.
