Western Digital Alleges Patent Infringement, Sues San Jose Company : Courts: The action comes following similar litigation filed by Conner Peripherals last week. Both suits involve computer disk drive technology.

Western Digital Corp. has sued Conner Peripherals Inc., a competing manufacturer of computer disk drives, to counter a patent-infringement suit filed by the San Jose-based rival.

In its lawsuit filed Monday, Western Digital is asking the federal court in Los Angeles for an unspecified amount in damages for alleged infringement of a patent that it holds on computer disk drive technology.

Marla Stark, vice president and general counsel for Conner, said she was not surprised by Western Digital’s lawsuit.

Conner filed a suit last week in federal court in San Jose and served notice to Western Digital on Tuesday afternoon. The suit alleges that Western Digital disk drives, which account for two-thirds of its annual revenue, infringe upon five patents owned by Conner.

Last year, San Jose-based Conner and Japanese-owned Alps Electric USA Ltd. bought the patents of the bankrupt disk drive maker PrairieTek Corp. in Colorado. Two of those patents are cited in Conner’s suit against Western Digital.

Conner has held discussions with Western Digital about patent licensing, but no agreement could be reached, said Robert Blair, spokesman for Western Digital. He said Western Digital sought a cross-license, or a deal in which each company is free to use each other’s technology without infringement.

Blair said Western Digital does not believe that it infringes on any Conner patents.

Two of the five patents fall into the form factor category, or the standard shape of a product, such as a 2.5-inch disk drive, Blair said.

“The PrairieTek patents are akin to seeking a patent on a size 9.5 shoe or a four-door sedan,” Blair said.

Stark said that she would not characterize Conner’s patents as covering standard-size disk drives.