A court settlement against Western Digital has been partly overturned, which means that they won't have to pay the $630 million fine to Seagate for misuse of confidential information.  They are not totally off the hook however as the judge only overturned 5 of the 8 charges, leaving 3 still outstanding.  Those three could well cost more than the amount they were just let off the hook for and even a storage giant like WD is going to notice a half billion dollar fine.  The Register is keeping an eye on this story, we will find out more in 2 weeks when the hearings resume.

"Western Digital is off the hook for a cool $630m in an arbitration case it initially lost over the alleged misuse of Seagate's confidential information, including trade secrets.

Back last year, Seagate complained about the activities of WD and a former Seagate employee who had joined WD, alleging that WD was using Seagate trade secrets and other confidential information in its activities. The dispute went to an arbitration court, which awarded Seagate $525m in damages in November 2011."

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