Scope and Content: It is unfortunate that so little of the court record from this, the first, antitrust suit against IBM, has become part of this collection. While perhaps not as crucial a case as Telex v. IBM. it remains, by virtue of its timing alone, an important action against IBM and a precursor of much of the government's argument. Indeed, depositions and testimony presented in this case, in conjunction with those from Telex v. IBM and Greyhound Computer Corporation v. IBM provide some of the important primary material on which the revenue measure of market share was determined in U.S. v. IBM.The settlement of Control Data Corporation v. IBM also gave rise to a rather notorious debate on the question of attorneys' work product. The controversy refers to the `CDC database,' prepared by Control Data legal staff as a means of organizing the evaluation of the enormous quantity of documents subpoenaed from IBM. As part of the settlement agreement arranged by the litigants, the `CDC database' was to be destroyed. The Justice Department and many firms with pending litigation against IBM were incensed at this move, since they had expected to make use of the database, particularly in their pre-trial discovery programs. The most vocal response to this turn of events came from The Telex Corporation, CCIA and Memorex. The documents relating to the offended parties complaint against IBM and CDC offer fascinating insights into the legal skill and expertise of the counsel involved.Another aspect of the settlement agreement which sparked further legal actions, was the sale of IBM's Service Bureau Corporation (SBC) to Control Data. The agreement provided that employees of the Service Bureau would not be eligible for rehire by IBM for six years. A number of the employees attempted to file a class-action suit against IBM and CDC, arguing that they had been deprived of rights and opportunities accruing to IBM employees as a result of this action.No documents, other than items in the clippings files above, are to be found in this collection for any of the SBC employees' suits. See Albert Weiss v. IBM, and Marihelen Jones, et. al. v. IBM.This series contains only two depositions from this antitrust suit and a small...

Abstract:

The collection consists of copies of trial records collected by Seymour C. Yuter (dates unknown), a patent attorney for Technitrol, Inc. They include documents from the interlocking suits of Technitrol v. Control Data Corp., Technitrol v. Sperry Rand, and Technitrol v. U.S.A., which came to trial between the late 1950s and the mid 1970s. The principal point at issue was, who was the inventor of the magnetic storage drum. The records provide a fascinating picture of the early history of the computer industry and trace the role played by the military in the years immediately after World War II.