HP Sues Unit of SBC Over Five Patents

Hewlett-Packard Co. sued a unit of SBC Communications Inc., seeking to invalidate five patents for data-handling systems.

A lawsuit filed in federal court in Delaware on Aug. 12 contends that SBC Laboratories Inc. since 2001 has asked Hewlett-Packard to pay millions of dollars to license the patents. Palo Alto-based Hewlett-Packard said that it didn’t infringe the patents, that they were not valid and that it expected SBC to sue.

Kevin Belgrade, a spokesman for San Antonio-based SBC, didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment.