Zi wins patent infringement appeal against Tegic
CALGARY, Nov. 1 /CNW/ - Zi Corporation (NASDAQ: ZICA - news; TSE: ZIC - news) has won its patent infringement appeal against Tegic Communications, Inc. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has ruled that the lower court made an error in granting summary judgment to Tegic. As a result, the Court of Appeal has overturned the district court's summary judgment.
"The court overruled the summary judgment in a decisive manner," said Gary Kovacs, president of Zi Corporation. "Based on their reasons for reversing the lower courts summary judgment, the Court of Appeal went as far as to infer that the court would find infringement by the trimmed versions of Tegic's Chinese T9 product." The decision went on to say that the Court of Appeal would leave it to the lower court to explicitly make the determination of infringement.
Zi Corporation filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Tegic on March 10, 1999 claiming that Tegic's technology for the input of Chinese characters into mobile phones infringed on Zi's O'Dell patent. On September 10, 1999, the lower court granted Tegic's motion for summary judgment which in effect dismissed the action. As a result of this latest appeal decision, Zi's patent infringement suit against Tegic will return to the lower court for further proceeding.
Kovacs further added, "Zi has always been confident of its patent position and the superiority of its eZiText(TM) product. The high court's favorable ruling is a clear indication that Zi's claims against Tegic for infringement of our proprietary O'Dell patent have merit. Zi intends on continuing to aggressively pursue our infringement claims against Tegic."
Zi Corporation is a market-driven technology company focused on developing and delivering intelligent interface solutions to the wireless and consumer Internet spaces. The company's core product, eZiText(TM) connects people to short messaging, e-mail, e-commerce, Web browsing and similar applications in almost any written language. Zi supports its strategic partners from offices in Calgary, Beijing, Hong Kong, San Francisco, Shenzhen, Stockholm and Tokyo. A publicly traded company, Zi Corporation is listed on the NASDAQ National Market (ZICA) and the Toronto Stock Exchange (ZIC). |
