Atmel Wins Major Patent Infringement Dispute; Federal Circuit Affirms ITC Limited Exclusion Order Against SST, Winbond and Sanyo.

Business Editors

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 2, 2001

Atmel(R) Corporation (Nasdaq:ATML) announced today that it has won a major and significant patent infringement dispute against Silicon Storage Technologies, Inc. (SST), Winbond Electronics Corporation of Taiwan and Winbond Electronics North America Corporation of California (collectively, Winbond), and Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd. (Sanyo), as well as against Macronix International Co., Ltd. and Macronix America, Inc. (collectively, Macronix). Just two weeks after hearing oral argument, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit entered its order affirming the determination by the International Trade Commission that Atmel's patent, U.S. Patent No. 4,451,903, is enforceable and infringed by SST, Winbond and Sanyo and that these companies also violated Section 337 of the Tariff Act. Accordingly, the ITC's Limited Exclusion Order remains enforceable, thereby precluding from entry into the United States all infringing SST, Winbond and Sanyo EPROMs, EEPROMs, Flash Memory and Flash Microcontroller semiconductor devices, as well as all circuit boards containing such semiconductor devices. Further, on Atmel's appeal, the Federal Circuit ruled in Atmel's favor by vacating and remanding to the ITC, the ITC's earlier determination that Macronix did not infringe the '903 Patent. The Federal Circuit vacated the ITC's interpretation of a particular claim element, applied the correct interpretation against Macronix's devices, and held that the newly interpreted claim element was present in Macronix's devices. According to Atmel's Chief Litigation and Intellectual Property Counsel, Julie Mar-Spinola, "This is a tremendous victory for Atmel Corporation. This has been a long, hard-fought litigation against companies who chose to ignore our valuable patent rights. We believe the Federal Circuit taking this matter on an expedited basis and entering its Order entirely in Atmel's favor within two weeks of oral arguments, is a testament to the strength of Atmel's infringement position against these companies. We anticipate that the ITC will consider the matters relating to Macronix in an equally expedited fashion."

George Perlegos, Atmel's Chief Executive Officer, stated that he is particularly satisfied with the Federal Circuit's Order. "There should be no doubt that Atmel's patent claims are valid. It is also clear, because these companies chose to use Atmel's intellectual property without a license, they will now have to pay the consequences. For example, we know that U.S. Customs is currently stopping shipments of the infringing devices pursuant to the Exclusion Order. To the extent any of these companies continue to suggest to their customers that they will be able to deliver their offending parts into the United States, we believe they are misleading."

About Atmel

Founded in 1984, Atmel Corporation is headquartered in San Jose, California with principal manufacturing facilities in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Nantes and Rousset and Grenoble, France and Heilbronn, Germany. Atmel designs, manufactures and markets on a worldwide basis advanced logic, mixed-signal, nonvolatile memory, and RF semiconductors. Atmel is also a leading provider of system-level integration semiconductor solutions using advanced CMOS, BiCMOS, BiPolar and SiGe process technologies.

Atmel product and financial information can be retrieved from its Fax-on Demand service. In North America call 1(800) 292-8635. Internationally from a fax phone, dial 1(408) 441-0732. Requests may be sent via e-mail to [e-mail] or by visiting Atmel's website at http://www.atmel.com.

Contacts: Julie Mar-Spinola, Chief Litigation and Intellectual Property Counsel, Tel: [phone]; Fax: [phone]; E-Mail: [e-mail].