Court rules in favor of S3 in denying Brooktree motion for preliminary injunction.SANTA CLARA Santa Clara, city, Cuba Santa Clara (sän`tä klä`rä), city (1994 est. pop. 217,000), capital of Villa Clara prov., central Cuba. , Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 12, 1996--S3 Incorporated (NASDAQ NASDAQ in full National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations U.S. market for over-the-counter securities. Established in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), NASDAQ is an automated quotation system that reports on : SIII) today announced that the United States District Court United States District Court In the U.S., any of the 94 trial courts of general jurisdiction in the federal judicial system. Each state, as well as the District of Columbia and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, has at least one federal district court. in San Diego San Diego (săn dēā`gō), city (1990 pop. 1,110,549), seat of San Diego co., S Calif., on San Diego Bay; inc. 1850. San Diego includes the unincorporated communities of La Jolla and Spring Valley. Coronado is across the bay. ruled against Brooktree Corporation in its request for a preliminary injunction A temporary order made by a court at the request of one party that prevents the other party from pursuing a particular course of conduct until the conclusion of a trial on the merits. A preliminary injunction is regarded as extraordinary relief. against S3 Incorporated. Claiming infringement of its U.S. patent number 5,406,306 relating to multimedia processing and display architecture, which was issued in April 1995, Brooktree had asked the court to enjoin S3 from continuing to sell products which allegedly use the patented technology. S3 has aggressively defended itself against the charges that its products, including its Trio64V+ graphics and video accelerator use technology covered by Brooktree's patent. In denying the preliminary injunction, the Court today ruled that "Brooktree has failed to meet its burden concerning likelihood of success on the merits on the merits adj. referring to a judgment, decision or ruling of a court based upon the facts presented in evidence and the law applied to that evidence. A judge decides a case "on the merits" when he/she bases the decision on the fundamental issues and considers " and stated that "(a)t this stage of the proceedings, the Court finds that S3 has raised serious questions about the validity of the patent, and the court also make a preliminary finding of non-infringement." Although S3 has prevailed at the preliminary injunction stage, the case is set for trial July 23, 1996, where Brooktree's request for a permanent injunction permanent injunction n. a final order of a court that a person or entity refrain from certain activities permanently or take certain actions (usually to correct a nuisance) until completed. and damages will be decided. The company has been advised by patent counsel that its Trio64V+ product does not infringe Brooktree's patent, and it plans to continue to defend the suit vigorously. While S3 believes it has meritorious defenses, including that the '306 patent is not valid and/or that the patent is unenforceable due to inequitable conduct on the part of Brooktree in obtaining the patent, there is no assurance that the company will be successful in the defense of the lawsuit, and even if successful, the litigation An action brought in court to enforce a particular right. The act or process of bringing a lawsuit in and of itself; a judicial contest; any dispute. When a person begins a civil lawsuit, the person enters into a process called litigation. may result in substantial expense to the company and divert the efforts of technical and management personnel. In addition, an unfavorable result in the litigation would have a material adverse effect on S3's business and results of operations. S3 Incorporated, headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif., is a leading supplier of multimedia acceleration solutions for leading personal computer (PC) platforms and operating systems. S3 is committed to applying its expertise in audio, video and graphics acceleration hardware and software to create innovative and affordable products for the home, desktop and mobile markets. CONTACT: S3 Incorporated George Harvey or Loretta Miller, 408/980-5400 |
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