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Decision on the Infringement of Advantest's Test Handler Patents in Korea
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TOKYO, Japan - March 16, 2006 -- Advantest Corporation (TSE: 6857, NYSE:ATE), filed an action for an injunction and compensation for damages against TechWing, Inc. (CEO: Jae-Gyun Shim, headquarters: Youngin City, Republic of Korea; hereafter TechWing) on grounds that TechWing's two memory test handler models (TW282 and TW292) infringe Korean patents (Patent Nos. 292831, 312093 and 355422) owned by Advantest. This case is still pending before the court in Korea.
Related to the above petition, decisions were rendered recently regarding requests filed with Korea's Intellectual Property Tribunal (IPT) by TechWing for Advantest's patents to be invalidated and for the scope of Advantest's patent rights to be confirmed.
In the IPT patent invalidation trial, most of Advantest's arguments that its patents are valid were accepted. However, in the trial to confirm the scope of Advantest's patent rights, TechWing's products were held not to fall within the scope of Advantest's patents. As reported by TechWing, this decision is based on the fact that products made by TechWing and Advantest utilize different docking methods. However, Advantest's patent specifications place no limitations on the docking method utilized. In this regard, we remain convinced that TechWing's products fall within the scope of Advantest's patent rights.
In addition, some press releases have erroneously reported that TechWing won the lawsuit before the Korean court. However, the lawsuit filed by Advantest is still pending and thus any statement that the case has been decided in favor of TechWing is wholly unfounded. As a future measure, Advantest is going to file an appeal against the above Korean IPT trial decision. Further, in the pending lawsuit, whose judgment will be rendered independently from the IPT trial decision, we have submitted arguments on a range of issues in addition to those tendered in the above IPT trial. Advantest is therefore confident that we will be successful in the lawsuit brought against TechWing.
Please Direct Further Enquiries To
Legal Departmenttel: +81-3-3214-7578 |
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Advantest Corporation is the world's leading automatic test equipment supplier to the semiconductor industry, and also produces electronic and optoelectronic instruments and systems. A global company, Advantest has long offered total ATE solutions, and serves the industry in every component of semiconductor test: tester, handler, mechanical and electrical interfaces, and software. Its logic, memory, mixed-signal and RF testers and device handlers are integrated into the most advanced semiconductor production lines in the world. Founded in Tokyo in 1954, Advantest established its first subsidiary in 1982, in the USA, and now has 40 subsidiaries worldwide. Among them, Advantest America, Inc. is based in Santa Clara, CA., and Advantest (Europe) GmbH is based in Munich, Germany. More information is available at www.advantest.co.jp |
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