ESI Announces Court Order in Patent Litigation
PORTLAND, Ore., March 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Electro Scientific Industries, Inc. (Nasdaq: ESIO - news) announced that today the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California issued an order regarding ESI's lawsuit against General Scanning Inc. (Nasdaq: GSCN - news) of Watertown, Massachusetts for patent infringement. The lawsuit (Electro Scientific Industries, Inc. v. General Scanning Inc. No. C 96-4268 SBA) alleges that General Scanning is infringing certain claims of ESI's patent 5,265,114 entitled ''System and Method for Selectively Laser Processing a Target Structure of One or More Materials of a Multimaterial, Multilayer Device'' and ESI's patent 5,473,624 entitled ''Laser System and Method for Selectively Severing Links.''
The Court granted ESI's motion for partial summary judgment that upgrade kits, sold by General Scanning for 1.3 micron laser wavelength memory repair, infringe the ESI patents in suit.
Earlier, on September 30, 1998, the Court granted ESI's motion for summary judgment of literal infringement by General Scanning.
ESI initiated litigation against General Scanning in December 1996 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The lawsuit is currently scheduled to go to trial on March 29, 1999. In papers filed with the Court, General Scanning has stated that ESI is seeking more than $20 million in damages in this case.
The patented technology is used in ESI's advanced laser repair systems, which produce 64 and 256 megabit memory chips and semiconductors with embedded memory. The systems are enabling technology for the next generation of semiconductor yield improvement and are the most advanced laser repair systems available on the market. The systems feature patented laser system technology operating at a wavelength of 1.3 microns and offer semiconductor manufacturers a much wider process window and higher yields than systems using conventional 1.047 micron laser technology.
About ESI
ESI, headquartered in Portland, Oregon, designs and manufactures sophisticated products used around the world in electronics manufacturing including: laser manufacturing systems for semiconductor yield improvement; production and test equipment for the manufacture of surface mount ceramic capacitors; laser trim systems for precise electrical tuning of circuits; precision laser and mechanical drilling systems for electronic interconnection; and machine vision systems. Electro Scientific Industries is traded on the Nasdaq National Market System under the symbol, ''ESIO.'' ESI's web site is esi.com. |
