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Telex Computer Products, Inc

 Organization

Found in 1 Collection or Record:

The Telex Corporation and Telex Computer Products, Inc., v. IBM

 Series
Accession: 1912Identifier: 1912-IV.
Scope and Content:

The records from this lawsuit from the second largest series of the collection. The case of Telex v. IBM may be considered the most influential of the civil suits against `Big Blue.' As a result of Telex's initial victory, many other firms also filed cases against IBM. The Justice Department, likewise, amended its complaint to incorporate the issues successfully argued by Telex, in particular, the allegation that IBM's monopoly extended beyond the scope of the Justice Department's claim to embrace the “submarket” for plug-compatible peripheral devices. When the case was reversed on IBM's appeal, some of these issues continued to be pressed in U.S. v. IBM.

IBM's counterclaims raised a further important issue for the computer industry. The charges filed by IBM involved a 1973 Grand Jury investigation into the theft of trade secrets from IBM's San Jose disc drive facility.

See also Wolfgang Arnold v. IBM.

Additional allegations charged Telex with unscrupulous behavior in the recruitment and hiring IBM engineers. Telex was not successful in defending itself against these charges and was ordered to pay IBM $17.5 million in compensation and $1 million in punitive damages.

IBM weighing the likelihood of collecting from Telex, dropped its claims for the $18.5 million in compensation and damages.

Perhaps the final indignity for Telex, following the reversal on appeal of the district court's favorable decision, and the loss of the counterclaims suit, came from a suit filed by Telex outside counsel, suing the firm for collection of his fee.

Dates: 1969-1982