ASM International N.V. (Nasdaq: ASMI and Euronext Stock Exchange in Amsterdam: ASM) announced today that its subsidiary, ASM America, Inc., has reached a settlement in the lawsuit recently filed by ASM against D&G Glassblowing in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California
The court has issued an order upholding the validity of ASM's patents and trademarks. The court also permanently enjoined D&G "from making, offering for sale or selling parts, devices or apparatus intended for use in equipment originally manufactured by . . . ASM.'
In the settlement agreement filed with the court, D&G admits that its unauthorized marketing and sales of replacement quartz components infringed ASM's patents and ASM® trademark.
ASM's lawsuit, filed earlier this year, charged D&G with selling replacement quartz components for ASM's chemical vapor deposition (CVD) tools, including its Epsilon® series of single wafer epitaxial tools. ASM has numerous patents directed to its process chamber, graphite, and quartzware technology.
"This settlement is an important factor in helping ASM maintain the quality of its products', said Bob Haro, director of the Epsilon Marketing Group. "ASM will continue to enforce its patents and intellectual property to ensure that its customers get consistent process results, and to secure a supply-chain of these critical components through qualified and licensed vendors.'
ASM is a world-class supplier of single-wafer epitaxial tools and related semiconductor process equipment. ASM has been building and selling epitaxial reactors since 1987 and its Epsilon reactors are used in mass production by all major semiconductor device manufacturers and wafer suppliers worldwide.
About ASM
ASM International is headquartered in Bilthoven, the Netherlands. ASM International's subsidiaries design, develop, manufacture and market equipment and materials used to produce semiconductor devices. ASM International and its subsidiaries provide production solutions for the wafer-processing, assembly and packaging segments through their facilities in the United States, Europe, Japan and Asia. ASM International's common shares trade on Nasdaq National Market under the symbol "ASMI' and on the Euronext Stock Exchange in Amsterdam under the symbol "ASM'. More information on ASM can be found on its website at http://www.asm.com
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Safe Harbor Statement under the US Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: The statements regarding orders, earnings development and the effects of research and new products on ASM's future, and other matters discussed in this statement, except for any historical data, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. These include, but are not limited to economic conditions in the semiconductor industry, currency fluctuations, the timing of significant orders, market acceptance of new products, competitive factors, risk factors related to litigation and other risks indicated in filings from time to time with the SEC and Stock Exchange Authorities.