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Technology Stocks : Zi-Corp (ZICA), formerly MCUAF -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: CocoBob who wrote (1407)	9/14/1999 11:24:00 AM
From: Mad2	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2082

Info on Tegic Mad2 tegic.com From Canadian Newswires Canadian Corporate Newswire September 13, 1999, Monday LENGTH: 615 words HEADLINE: Tegic Wins Patent Infringement Dispute; U.S. District Court In Seattle Summarily Dismisses Zi Corp Claims SOURCE: NEWS RELEASE TRANSMITTED BY CANADIAN CORPORATE NEWS BODY: SEATTLE, WASHINGTON--Tegic Communications today announced that the United States District Court in Seattle has summarily and completely dismissed the meritless patent infringement lawsuit filed by Zi Corp. of Canada (TSE:ZIC.TO) (Nasdaq:ZICA). The Court found that Zi "had the burden of coming forward with evidence in support of its infringement claim or requesting additional time" and that Zi "had done neither." The suit was dismissed Friday, September 10th, reaffirming the integrity of Tegic's intellectual property. "From the beginning we have been confident that our T9 family of products do not infringe on Zi's O'Dell patent and that Zi's action was simply the desperate action of a company that has consistently failed to successfully compete with Tegic's global standard T9 technology. We are, of course, pleased with the concurrence of the Court," said Bob Hart, President and CEO of Tegic Communications. "Tegic's superior, patented technology and T9 products are markedly different from the cumbersome implementation of Chinese text input that is contemplated by the O'Dell patent." In the lawsuit filed earlier this year by Zi, the company claimed that Tegic's technology for the input of Chinese characters into mobile phones violated Zi's O'Dell' United States patent. The Court found that Tegic's Chinese T9 does not infringe the claims of Zi's patent "either literally or by substantial equivalents." Moreover, the Court repeatedly ruled that Zi's interpretation of the claims of O'Dell "as a whole neither teaches nor suggests" the superior Chinese T9 system. Hart further added, "Courts do not grant summary judgement motions lightly, and the fact that the court granted the motion in this case clearly shows the limited scope of Zi's patent rights and the complete lack of merit of its infringement claim. Tegic never needed to submit information clearly showing the invalidity of Zi's patent, especially in view of the absurd interpretation of the claims proposed by Zi. We believe that the lawsuit was simply a specious effort to gain through the courts what Zi's technology could not achieve on its merits in the marketplace." Tegic Communications, the leader in alphabet-based and Japanese and Chinese character-based text input technologies for handheld devices, was founded in 1995 to develop and market text input technologies for the telecommunications and computing industries. The company has worldwide patents, both issued and pending, on T9 Text Input for alphabet-based languages, Chinese, Korean and Japanese and has licensed the technology to major consumer electronics and communications equipment manufacturers worldwide. The courts have not yet examined the issue of Zi's possible infringement of Tegic's patents. T9 Text Input is licensed by wireless phone manufacturers who represent more than 90 percent of the worldwide wireless handset market including such leading wireless phone manufacturers as Nokia, Ericsson, Motorola, Benefon, Bosch, Fujitsu, Maxon, Mitsubishi, NEC, NeoPoint, Optimay, Philips, Qualcomm, Sagem, Samsung, Siemens, Sony, Texas Instruments and others. For more information about Tegic Communications or T9 Text Input, call 206/343-7001, send e-mail to info@tegic.com, or visit the Company's Web site at www.tegic.com. Tegic is a trademark and T9 is a registered trademark of Tegic Communications. All other trademarks or registered trademarks belong to their respective holders. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT: Tegic Communications Jaymelina Esmele 206/268-7554 jesmele@tegic.com LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: September 14, 1999