A source at King of Prussia, Pennsylvania-based HDS Network Systems Inc says the Network Computer company has sold the HDS portion of its name to Hitachi Data Systems Ltd – which is said to own the rights to HDS everywhere except in the US – and has less than a year to come up with a new name for itself. Hitachi, one of the original backers of Oracle Corp’s Network Computer initiative in May of last year (CI No 2,918), is thought to have approached HDS, concerned that consumers were confusing the two. Hitachi has apparently been getting calls as well as inquiries on its Web site meant for HDS Network Systems and vice versa. HDS plans to publicly announce that it’s changing its name in a couple of months, along with an OEM agreement it is said to be negotiating with Hitachi. Meanwhile, there’s no official word on the promised announcements of more licensees for its @workstation hardware and netOS software (CI No 3,093). HDS originally stood for Human Designed Systems Inc.
