*AV*--Notewrothy Press Release
Monday June 22, 7:45 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
SOURCE: CFM Technologies, Inc.
CFM Technologies Announces Patent Ruling
STEAG MicroTech Permanently Enjoined
WEST CHESTER, Penn., June 22 /PRNewswire/ -- CFM Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: CFMT - news) announced today that the United States District Court for the District of Delaware has ordered that final judgment be entered against defendant STEAG MicroTech, Inc. Following its resolution of all post-trial motions, the Court upheld the jury's finding that STEAG willfully infringed U.S. patent 4,911,761, owned by CFMT, Inc. and licensed to CFM, by selling Marangoni dryers. The Court has permanently enjoined and restrained STEAG from importing, making, using, offering for sale, or selling any infringing product and upheld the jury's $3.1 million damages award.
Roger Carolin, CFM President and Chief Executive Officer, commented, ''We appreciate the court's careful deliberation before entering this judgment supporting our ownership of this critical technology. This thorough review gives us confidence that there will be no grounds for a successful appeal of the verdict of willful infringement on all asserted claims.''
''This final judgment is a heartening victory for technology-based invention and an intellectual property system that supports innovation and value creation,'' said Chris McConnell, CFM Chairman and one of the inventors of the '761 patent. ''The upheld findings of enforceability and validity on all asserted claims give us added confidence that we will prevail in the actions recently brought by STEAG in Europe and that we will maintain our drying patents in Europe.''
CFM Technologies, Inc. is a leading manufacturer of advanced cleaning equipment for the semiconductor and flat panel display industries. CFM's systems provide superior contamination control and processing capabilities using a totally enclosed processing chamber. CFM's Direct-Displace(TM) IPA vapor drying technology eliminates watermarks and other drying defects. CFM historically has developed technical innovations to lower cost of ownership for advanced wet processing systems.
Andrew
BTW-this is the equivalent of the revenues associated with selling 2 systems with all the proceeds falling to the bottom line. I state this because the company takes a hit in price when it fails to deliver on that amount of revenue in a quarter. Question is whether it will be received as such by the financial community and whether the elimination of STEAG as a competitor enhances CFMT's financial fortunes down the road both in the short term and long term. YILD is still a competitor, though.
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