I've pretty much been staying away from covering the plethora of lawsuits that are swirling around this year mostly because stories about nuts and bolts hardware are more interesting (OK, I give in once in a while). There are so many suits in effect right now that, just by reading info from the companies involved, it's difficult to have an opinion about who's right and who's wrong. Most times, "right" and "wrong" aren't particularly easy absolutes to pinpoint. However, in the interest of fairness, I need to mention that Quantum filed suit against Imation last week to stop it from selling tape media based on Quantum's DLTtape technology that's intended to be used in DLTtape drives. Quantum's lawsuit, which was filed in California State Court in Santa Clara County, charges Imation with "extreme and pervasive" misappropriation of trade secrets, deceptive and misleading advertising, and unfair business practices. I mention this because last week we ran a story about Imation's Black Watch DLT IV and told you that Imation was suing Quantum over "price-fixing, conspiracy to monopolize, restraining fair trade and other anti-competitive business practices." I'm personally not terribly interested in writing about big companies pitching rocks at each other unless I know enough about the situation to have an opinion. In this case, since I mentioned one company's allegations, it seems only fair to let you know what the other guys are saying.