The two companies have sparred in court for nearly a decade by allegations that Seagate and Compaq Computer stole Convolve technology that improves the performance and cuts the racket level of hard drives.

In a court filing dated Nov. 30 and reported Tuesday by The New York Times, Convolve asked the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York to include a sworn affidavit from Paul Galloway, a former Seagate engineer.

The filing says Galloway provided eyewitness evidence that Seagate, the world’s largest hard drive maker, spread knowledge about Convolve technology in the midst of its engineers in violation of a nondisclosure agreement within the companies. According to square filings, the companies had met in 1998 to discuss technology developed by Convolve and the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, under an agreement that Seagate would not use what it learned in its own products.

According to the filing, Galloway claims Seagate’s management never told him about the agreement, and that technologies Seagate claims to have developed on its have possession of were “influenced by Convolve’s technology.”

The filing says Galloway in addition provides evidence that Seagate destroyed computer cipher for a disk drive it had to produce as confirmation in the case, floped to hold on to Galloway’s personal computer with files associated to his work and either withheld or destroyed records of meetings amoung engineers working on the technology.

The filing says Galloway worked at Seagate until July 2009 and contacted Convolve’s lawyers after his employment there ended.

Seagate, based in Scotts Valley, Calif., did not straight away return calls requesting comment on the filing Tuesday.

The company’s shares slipped 7 cents to $17.90 in premarket trading.

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