Therma-Wave Wins Round in Patent Dispute With Rudolph Technologies
FREMONT, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 29, 1999--Therma-Wave
announced today that the U.S. Patent Office issued a ruling allowing
Therma-Wave to proceed with its action against Rudolph Technologies to
obtain ownership of certain patent rights covering the technology used
in Rudolph's SpectraLaser product line. Therma-Wave believes it
invented this technology prior to Rudolph's introduction of its
products. Therma-Wave began its efforts to obtain ownership of the
technology in 1993. In 1998, the Patent Office agreed to institute an
interference proceeding to determine which company first invented the
concept of simultaneous multiple angle of incidence ellipsometry. In
an effort to halt the proceedings, Rudolph filed a number of motions
seeking to prove that Therma-Wave was not entitled to claim ownership
of the invention. Earlier this month, the Patent Office denied
Rudolph's main motion and ordered that the interference proceed.
Therma-Wave is confident that the Patent Office will determine that it
is the owner of the technology used by Rudolph in its SpectraLaser
product line. Dr. Rosencwaig, Chairman of Therma-Wave stated:
"Therma-Wave pioneered the technology used in Rudolph Technologies'
SpectraLaser product line and we intend to defend our intellectual
property rights vigorously".
Using advanced proprietary technologies, Therma-Wave, Inc.
designs, manufactures, and markets a range of non-destructive
metrology systems for film-thickness, density, and roughness
measurements, and ion-implant monitoring of advanced semiconductor
devices. Therma-Wave's World Wide Web address is
thermawave.com. For additional information please contact
Lee Smith 510/668-2200 at Therma-Wave, Inc.
--30--ik/sf*
CONTACT: Therma-Wave, Inc.
Lee Smith, 510/668-2200
KEYWORD: CALIFORNIA
INDUSTRY KEYWORD: COMPUTERS/ELECTRONICS HARDWARE
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Nov-29-1999 08:21 GMT
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