Veeco Instruments
Inc., today announced that the United States District Court in Los Angeles
issued an order in Veeco's patent infringement action against Asylum Research
Corporation. The order was issued on March 19, 2007 under seal, and the Court
has just lifted the seal. The order addressed the parties' summary judgment
motions that were filed in 2004.
In a lengthy opinion dealing with Veeco's patent claims against Asylum Research
relating to atomic force microscopes (AFM), the Court ruled that Veeco had presented
sufficient evidence of Asylum's infringement as to three of Veeco's patents
to set the case for trial. Veeco expects the trial to commence in the first
half of 2008. Veeco intends to vigorously pursue its claims and to seek an injunction
barring the sale of any infringing Asylum AFMs.
John R. Peeler, Chief Executive Officer of Veeco, commented, "We are pleased
that the Court rejected most of Asylum's defenses and has set the case for trial.
We continue to look forward to a positive resolution of our U.S. litigation
against Asylum. We welcome fair and honest competition, but we will vigorously
defend our intellectual property. Veeco has invested tens of millions of dollars
to develop and/or license AFM technology and related intellectual property.
In the interests of our employees, customers and shareholders, we intend to
protect that investment."
In the ruling, the Court narrowly interpreted two other patents Veeco had asserted
against Asylum and therefore found that Asylum did not infringe these two patents.
Veeco disagrees with this narrow interpretation and believes it has a strong
basis to appeal this interpretation at the appropriate time.
Veeco is the world leader in atomic force and scanning probe microscopy, with
an installed base of over 8,000 systems at university and research/nanotechnology
centers worldwide. In this lawsuit, Veeco alleges that the manufacture, use
and sale of Asylum's MFP-3D atomic force microscope constitutes willful infringement
of Veeco patents. Veeco is seeking monetary damages and a permanent injunction
to stop infringement. Asylum is a private company founded by former Veeco employees.
Veeco Instruments Inc. provides solutions for nanoscale applications in the
worldwide data storage, semiconductor, HB-LED/wireless and scientific research
markets. Our Metrology products are used to measure at the nanoscale and our
Process Equipment tools help create nanoscale devices. Veeco's manufacturing
and engineering facilities are located in New York, New Jersey, California,
Colorado, Arizona and Minnesota. Global sales and service offices are located
throughout the United States, Europe, Japan and Asia Pacific. Additional information
on Veeco can be found at http://www.veeco.com/.
To the extent that this news release discusses expectations or otherwise makes
statements about the future, such statements are forward-looking and are subject
to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ
materially from the statements made. These factors include the risks discussed
in the Business Description and Management's Discussion and Analysis sections
of Veeco's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2006 and
in our subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K
and press releases. Veeco does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking
statements to reflect future events or circumstances after the date of such
statements.