Science & Technology
Science and Technology
Science and Technology
Wed, April 15, 2009
Tue, April 14, 2009
BLADE Network Technologies: BLADE Network Technologies Announces Patent Cross-License Agreement With IBM
SANTA CLARA, CA--(Marketwire - April 14, 2009) - [ BLADE Network Technologies, Inc ]. (BLADE) today announced a patent cross-license agreement with IBM (
Over the past three years, BLADE has been providing industry-first data center networking solutions for IBM including the first native 10 Gigabit Ethernet switch for [ IBM BladeCenter ], the first top-of-rack switch for iDataPlex in massive Web 2.0-style data centers and cloud computing, and the first network virtualization solution that automates the enterprise data center for dynamic migration of virtual machines. BLADE currently delivers its embedded Ethernet switches for IBM BladeCenter under the "BNT" name and its top-of-rack RackSwitch data center switches for IBM's iDataPlex and IBM System Cluster 1350.
"Licensing IBM patents will serve to accelerate BLADE's development of leading-edge products in open unified computing, I/O virtualization, data center network provisioning and cloud networking," said [ Vikram Mehta, President and CEO ], BLADE Network Technologies. "We are delighted that BLADE's strategic relationship with IBM now includes a cross-licensing patent agreement, which will further enhance and extend the innovation which has made BLADE the trusted supplier of data center networking, virtualization and management solutions to over 300 of the Fortune 500. We see this as an enhancement to the long-term relationship between BLADE and IBM."
"IBM's patent cross-licensing agreement with BLADE Network Technologies supports the company's commitment to balancing proprietary and open innovation," said Dan Cerutti, general manager, IBM Intellectual Property Licensing. "Through this collaboration with BLADE, we can pursue new business opportunities and enable others to take advantage of the technologies they need to enable important data center projects."
Patent cross licenses support two of the basic reasons for granting patents -- sharing information about new inventions -- and giving companies greater freedom to innovate.
For the past 16 years, IBM has received more U.S. patents than any other company. In 2008, IBM received 4,186 U.S. patents. IBM holds more than 40,000 patents worldwide. For more information on IBM, please visit [ www.ibm.com ].
BLADE Network Technologies is the leading supplier of Gigabit and 10G Ethernet network infrastructure solutions that reside in blade servers and "scale-out" server and storage racks. BLADE's new "Virtual, Cooler and Easier" RackSwitch family demonstrates the promise of "[ Rackonomics ]" -- a revolutionary approach for scaling out data center networks to drive down total cost of ownership. The company's customers include close to two-thirds of the Fortune 500 across 26 industry segments, and an installed base representing more than 250,000 network switches and over 5.5 million switch ports connecting more than 1,200,000 servers. For more information, visit [ www.bladenetwork.net ].
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements that are based on management's expectations, estimates, projections and assumptions. Words such as "expects," "anticipates," "plans," "believes," "scheduled," "estimates" and variations of these words and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve certain risks and uncertainties, which are difficult to predict. Therefore, actual future results and trends may differ materially from what is forecast in forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors set forth in the company's public filings. All forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release or, in the case of any document incorporated by reference, the date of that document. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to the company or any person acting on the company's behalf are qualified by the cautionary statements in this section. The company does not undertake any obligation to update or publicly release any revisions to forward-looking statements to reflect events, circumstances or changes in expectations after the date of this release.
