Rishi,
Check out at
biz.yahoo.com
On the Yahoo board, someone spread rumors that ESS is shipping
several orders to its audio IC customers after it settled with
Creative Labs' law suit. This will contribute significantly to
ESS' 4Q'98 bottom line. How true is the "rumor"?
On the other hand, Aureal, after being sued to violate some
wavetable engine cache memory patents owned by Emu Technology
(100% owned subsidiary of Creative Labs.), decided to countersue
Creative.
Poor Aureal, this company is going to have 200 million shares
outstanding pretty soon after its shareholders' voting, currently
trading at $0.50 cents/sh(currently about 40 million shares outstanding).
Do you think once the Aureal voted yes to dilution to 200 million
shares, the share price will drop to $0.10 a share?
Steve
*********
Tuesday December 8, 11:00 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
SOURCE: Creative Technology Ltd.
Creative Technology Responds to Newly Asserted
Aureal Patent Claims
New Lawsuit by Aureal is Without Merit, Appears Designed Only to Respond To Recent Litigation
Reversals Suffered by Aureal
MILPITAS, Calif., Dec. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Creative Technology Ltd. (Nasdaq: CREAF - news) announced that it was
served today with a lawsuit by Aureal Semiconductor, Inc. alleging infringement of two Aureal patents. Aureal is the new name
adopted by Media Vision after it emerged from bankruptcy following what has been called the largest and most elaborate
financial fraud case in the history of Silicon Valley.
Aureal's newly asserted claims come over four months after Creative began shipping Sound Blaster Live!, one of the products
Aureal claims is infringing. The new suit by Aureal also follows the recent rejection of Aureal's key defense in a separate,
long-standing patent case that Creative filed last February against Aureal. Creative's case against Aureal is set for trial next year.
''We regard this latest move by Aureal as an obvious, by-the-book, defensive ploy -- an entirely predictable move given the
recent rejection of Aureal's key defense in Creative's own long-standing patent case against Aureal,'' said John Danforth, vice
president and general counsel at Creative Labs, Inc., Creative's US subsidiary.
''Creative's long-standing patent case against Aureal, having now gotten past an unsuccessful summary judgment motion by
Aureal, is set to go to trial next year,'' Danforth continued. ''Last week Creative filed a motion seeking to have the trial date
expedited to February, 1999. In addition, early next year the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals will hear Creative's motion for a
preliminary injunction seeking to immediately enjoin all further shipments of Aureal's Vortex and Vortex 2 products. Creative's
opening brief to the Federal Circuit in support of that motion is set to be filed this week. Faced with these adverse
developments in the long-standing patent litigation against it, Aureal now has chosen to belatedly assert two patents against a
Creative product that has been on the market for many months -- a product that clearly does not infringe. Creative is highly
confident it will prevail in this matter, and has opinions of outside patent counsel confirming that it does not infringe.''
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