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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (42250)	2/15/2001 3:56:30 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 70976

United States Patent Office Dismisses Axcelis' Petition SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 15, 2001--Applied Materials, Inc. today reported that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (``Patent Office'') has dismissed the petition of Axcelis Technology, Inc. (``Axcelis''), rejecting Axcelis' request to change the Patent Office's earlier decision that limited the scope of the patent that Axcelis is asserting in its lawsuit against Applied Materials. The U.S. District Court in Boston had previously denied the request of Axcelis to begin discovery in its lawsuit alleging patent infringement against Applied Materials' Swift(TM) ion implantation system and instead suspended the lawsuit until the Patent Office completed its reexamination of Axcelis' patent. Now that the Patent Office has dismissed Axcelis' petition and limited the scope of Axcelis' patent, the Court has ordered that the lawsuit proceed expeditiously with a trial scheduled in August 2001. ``The Patent Office's decision clearly supports our belief that Applied Materials' Swift ion implantation product simply does not infringe Axcelis' patent,'' stated Joseph J. Sweeney, group vice president, Legal Affairs and Intellectual Property. ``This now enables Applied Materials to move forward quickly to address Axcelis' baseless claims, which ignore critical limitations of its patent and attempt to slow the momentum of our Swift system in the marketplace.'' ``We therefore look forward to an early resolution of this case and expect to prevail in court,'' concluded Sweeney. Applied Materials (Nasdaq: AMAT - news) is a leader of the Information Age and the world's largest supplier of products and services to the global semiconductor industry. Applied Materials' Web site is at appliedmaterials.com. Subject 50522