Avant! Loses, SILVACO Wins ... $31,400,000 + Costs + Injunction
Business Wire - November 14, 1997 02:00
%SILVACO %AVANT AVNT %CALIFORNIA %COMPUTERS %ELECTRONICS %COMED V%BW P%BW
SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 14, 1997--As the result of the civil trial that began the week of November 3, 1997, Avant! (NASDAQ:AVNT) has been
ordered to pay SILVACO $31.4 million dollars in damages plus costs resulting from a series of four counterclaims filed by SILVACO against Meta-Software following the
dismissal of all charges originally filed by Meta against SILVACO.
The Court will also issue an injunction against Avant!.
In March 1993, Meta-Software filed a nine count civil suit against SILVACO. In 1995 SILVACO filed a counter suit against Meta which included claims for defamation,
interference, unfair competition and breach of contract. During the past two years, following a long series of misconduct and abuse of civil discovery procedures on the part
of Meta-Software and later Avant!, and a complete lack of evidence put forward by Meta and its officers to substantiate claims made against SILVACO, the Court issued
sanction after sanction and dismissed count by count all of the claims alleged in the Meta lawsuit. By the time the trial began, all of the claims in the original Meta lawsuit had
been dismissed by the Court. The complete text of the rulings and sanctions issued by the Court against Meta (Avant!) will soon be available at www.silvaco.com.
The Court found the misconduct and abuse of discovery procedures on the part of Meta (Avant!) was so severe that default was entered against Meta (Avant!) on
SILVACO's defamation and interference claims. In the trial the Court found that the actions of Meta and its officers were intentional and defamatory. The Court found in
favor of SILVACO on its claims for defamation and interference in the amount of $20,000,000. The Court also ruled that the intentional and defamatory conduct on the part
of Meta and its officers was unlawful and thus constituted unfair competition. To compensate for improper gains made by Meta at SILVACO's expense, the Court awarded
SILVACO an additional $11,400,000 on the unfair business practices claim.
SILVACO's final counterclaim against Meta for breach of contract alleged that Meta's HSpice(tm) included an unlawful distribution of SILVACO's portion of the DDL 2000
discrete device library, and that META (Avant!) still has SILVACO's source code. The Court found in favor of SILVACO, stating that it would fashion a form of injunction
against Avant! precluding the sale, use or distribution of SILVACO's contribution to the DDL 2000 Library. The Court also awarded SILVACO nominal damages on this
claim.
The Court will issue a permanent injunction against Avant! precluding Avant! from making defamatory statements regarding SILVACO or SILVACO's products. The
complete text of the injunction rulings will also soon be posted at www.silvaco.com.
In addition to compensatory damages, the Court also held that SILVACO is entitled to an award of costs associated with its counterclaims. The final damage figure will soon
be available and will be posted at www.silvaco.com.
This is the first of two lawsuits filed by SILVACO against Meta (Avant!). In January 1998 at the scheduled trial setting conference SILVACO will ask the Court to bring the
second suit to trial at the earliest appropriate date.
Founded in 1984, and headquartered in Santa Clara, CA, SILVACO International is the leading supplier of physically-based design tools for the semiconductor industry.
Semiconductor companies worldwide use SILVACO's tools in all phases of IC technology development ranging from simulation of semiconductor manufacturing processes
and device performance, to generation of SPICE models, and simulation and optimization of circuit performance. SILVACO today operates ten worldwide sales and support
offices covering all major semiconductor manufacturing regions throughout North America, Asia and Europe.
CONTACT: SILVACO International
Joseph Gow, 408/654-4376 |
