Digital Takes On Emulex Alleging Infringement : Litigation: The suit asserts Costa Mesa firm’s storage products use technology that infringes on Digital Equipment Corp.’s patents. The defendant says it will defend aggressively.

Continuing its legal broadside against companies that supply storage enhancements for its computers, Digital Equipment Corp. said Tuesday that it is suing Emulex Corp. for patent infringement.

The suit alleges that Costa Mesa-based Emulex’s line of storage products that use a certain technology infringes on four of Digital’s patents.

Digital, one of the nation’s largest computer companies, says the patents, issued in 1984 and 1989, protect its unique way of connecting storage devices, such as disk drives, to a cluster of computers.

“We see no merit in this legal action on DEC’s part and will defend it aggressively,” said Robert N. Stephens, Emulex’s chief executive. “Emulex, with its history of offering products noted for high performance and quality, exercises great care to avoid infringement of other companies’ valid patents.”

The suit was filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana. Since December, 11 companies that supply products for Digital computers have decided to discontinue their products by the end of 1992 rather than go to court with Digital, which had $14 billion in sales last year.

“We have repeatedly stated that we are serious about protecting our intellectual property rights,” said Charles F. Christ, a Digital vice president.

Emulex joins two other companies--Micro Technology Inc. in Anaheim and Lago Systems Inc. in Los Gatos--that have resisted any settlement. Next to Micro Technology, Emulex is one of the biggest manufacturers in the $350-million industry.

Joanne Martz, an Emulex spokeswoman, said the company has been making so-called SDI/STI products, the storage devices that allegedly infringe on Digital’s patents, since 1986.

The products accounted for 15% to 20% of the company’s $153 million in revenue in 1990. The share of total sales of the products has been falling, but the company will issue some new SDI products today, Martz said.

The lawsuit marks the second time in six years that Emulex has been sued by Digital.

In 1985, Digital alleged that Emulex violated unrelated patents on interconnection technology and stole its trade secrets by hiring a former Digital engineering director.

That litigation, which involved a counterclaim by Emulex, was settled in 1988 with no adverse financial impact on Emulex, Martz said. She added that terms of the settlement were confidential.

Nikki Richardson, a Digital spokeswoman, said Emulex purchased licenses for certain technologies from Digital as part of the settlement.

Stephens said Emulex would seek to protect its customers from any disruption in supply of its products. In the earlier litigation, however, Digital was able to win court orders temporarily barring Emulex from selling or developing infringing products.

Digital began its latest legal crackdown in April, 1989, when it sued System Industries in Milpitas. A spokesman for System Industries said the company decided to settle the suit in December, 1990, because it wanted to cooperate with Digital in developing new products.

Charles Babcock, editor of Digital News, a Boston trade journal, said the lawsuits show that Digital has not made up its mind whether it supports the idea of so-called open systems.

Open systems is an industry term that refers to the idea that computer manufacturers should make their basic designs available to each other so that products will work together and customers can buy equipment from a variety of vendors.

“Digital has a history of charging infringement and storming to court and then reaching a settlement,” Babcock said. “That’s partly because no third-party company has ever decided to fight it all the way in court.”