Micronic announces U.S. litigation against Etec Systems

Micronic announces U.S. litigation against Etec Systems January 11, 2000, Micronic Laser Systems AB announced today that it had commenced a court action in a United States federal court against Etec Systems Inc. Etec, based in California, is a competitor of Micronic in the market for laser pattern generation equipment used in the manufacture of semiconductor. Micronic commenced the litigation against Etec in response to recent statements by Etec purporting to indicate that Micronic may be infringing certain Etec U.S. patents. Micronic's action alleges that Micronic does not infringe the Etec patents in question, and that Etec's patents also may be invalid. "We are taking this action in order to protect our markets and our customers from improper allegations of patent infringement, " said Micronic's Chief Executive Officer, Bert Jeppsson. "Micronic respects the intellectual property rights of its competitors throughout the world, and intends to fairly and ethically conduct its business in all of its markets. We also must act when webelieve one of our competitors is not conducting its business by the same standards, and is interfering with our major customer relationships by improperly challenging Micronic's right to sell its newest multi-beam laser pattern generation systems in the United States. "Under U.S. patent laws,Micronic seeks a declaration from the U.S. court that there is no basis for patent claim by Etec. Micronic's lawsuit also seeks damages for certain improper statements recently made by Etec. "We look forward to vindicating our position in court, " said Jeppsson. "In the meantime, we wish to reassure our investors and customers that Etec's patent claims have no merit. Micronic Laser Systems in brief Micronic Laser Systems is a Swedish high-tech company engaged in the development, manufacture and marketing of a series of extremely accurate laser writers for the production of photomasks. The technology involved is known as microlithography. Micronic's systems are used by the world's leading electronics companies in the manufacture of television and computer displays, semiconductor circuits and semiconductor packaging components. Micronic is situated in Täby, north of Stockholm and at present has a subsidiary in the USA and service offices in Japan, Taiwan and the USA. Micronic maintains a web-site at: www.micronic.se Contact: Bert Jeppsson, President & CEO, phone +46 8 638 52 66 John C. Dickey, Attorney at Law, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, phone +1 650 849-5324 ------------------------------------------------------------ Please visit http://www.bit.se for further information The following files are available for download: http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2000/01/11/20000706BIT00570/bit0001.doc http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2000/01/11/20000706BIT00570/bit0002.pdf