Can a tiny Scottish company with just two full-time employees and revenues of $1.6m squeeze millions out of mighty Seagate Technology Inc, the US giant with revenues of $6.82bn? That is the fervent hope of the 2,500 shareholders of Rodime Plc, an Edinburgh company that will drag Seagate into a Washington appeals court next month. Rodime was a big name in hard drives during the early days of PCs but has long since pulled out of such mundane activities as manufacturing and R&D and now lives by litigation. In 1996 it lost a long running court battle against Quantum Corp but, undeterred by a first round defeat against Seagate over 5 1/4 inch drives, is now taking the Scotts Valley, California to appeal. So will the conclusion of the Seagate case mean the end of Rodime? Of course not. The company has just concluded the long process of registering patents relating to the digital position of the read/write head on a drive. An official said: We are in discussion with parties that are using that technology but these are in the early stages. The shares currently languish at one penny ($0.016) and may appeal to lawyers with a specialized knowledge of patent litigation.
