IBM believes it will prevail both with the U.S. International Trade Commission and in U.S. courts in a patent spat with Asustek Computer of Taiwan.

Asustek filed suit against IBM in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California last week over the alleged infringement of two patents. The court action came just four months after the ITC said it would investigate claims made by IBM against Asustek regarding the infringement of three IBM patents.

"While we are not going to comment on the specifics of Asustek's legal action, we are confident that the International Trade Commission and U.S. courts will support IBM's position," Fred McNeese, director, IBM Corporate Media Relations said in an e-mailed statement.

The company said its patents are valid and have been infringed by Asustek products and components. Asustek disagreed, and said IBM is infringing its patents.

One of the Asustek patents is for providing remote storage for Internet appliances, while the other relates to servers. Asustek alleged the patents have been infringed by IBM in components, software and hardware related to storage area networking equipment and servers.

IBM has asked the ITC for an injunction banning the importation of Asustek equipment that uses certain PC power supplies, cooling fans and clustering technologies that IBM said infringe its patents.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.