ESI Settles Trade Secret Lawsuit for $1 Million Against Machine Vision Products
PORTLAND, Ore., March 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Electro Scientific Industries, Inc. (Nasdaq: ESIO - news) announced the settlement of a suit between its wholly-owned subsidiary, Applied Intelligence Systems , Inc. (AISI) and Machine Vision Products (MVP), both of Ann Arbor, Michigan. The suit against MVP and two former AISI employees for theft of trade secrets, unfair competition and interference of business was settled with consent judgements in ESI's favor including both monetary and injunctive relief.
In December 1996, AISI sued MVP and two former AISI employees who currently work for MVP on five counts including breach of contract, unfair competition, conversion of intellectual property and trade secrets, interference with business expectancies and willful destruction of property. The case, which has been pending in the Michigan Circuit Court, County of Washtenaw, has been settled on terms satisfactory to all parties. The Defendants consented to a $1 million judgement against them and to an injunction against using ESI's trade secrets.
''ESI makes significant investments in the research and development of the technology that drives our products -- the resulting intellectual property is critical to ESI and we will vigorously protect those assets,'' states Larry Rapp, Vice President of ESI. ''This action is part of our continuing commitment to protect and enhance shareholder value.''
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.
NOTE: Statements in this press release may include forward looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to materially differ, either better or worse, from those discussed. Such risks and uncertainties are numerous and are identified in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K and interim reports on Form 10-Q.
SOURCE: Electro Scientific Industries, Inc. |
