HP changes product name in response to lawsuit
Hewlett-Packard replaces two letters in the name of its new high-end data storage product in the face of a lawsuit from competitor EMC.
- Shankland covered the tech industry for more than 25 years and was a science writer for five years before that. He has deep expertise in microprocessors, digital photography, computer hardware and software, internet standards, web technology, and more.
A judge last week issued a preliminary injunction requiring Hewlett-Packard to change the name of the product.
The product now is called the SureStore E Disk Array XP256 instead of the SureStore E Disk Array MC256. EMC said HP had referred to it as the "E MC256," which confused customers and violated its trademark.
EMC, which up until a few weeks ago had a prominent spot in HP's storage sales, has been replaced by HP-branded equipment from Hitachi Data Systems. The demise of the years-old business relationship between EMC and HP has been characterized by both companies calling each other's high-end storage products inferior.
In arguments before the judge, HP said it would cost $100 million to change the name of the product, and EMC spokesperson said.
"Unlike solutions from some companies, the only single point of failure in HP's solution didn't appear to be in the product itself--it was in the model number. We changed it," said David Scott, of HP's Enterprise Storage Business Unit, in a statement. "It was never our intention to confuse customers with the intended 'multi-connect' designation of 'MC' in our product numbering."