DISC MANUFACTURING FILES ANTITRUST AND UNFAIR COMPETITION COMPLAINT AGAINST PIONEER ELECTRONICS CORP. OF JAPAN AND SUBSIDIARIES; PATENT COMPLAINT FILED AGAINST DMI.

CHICAGO, IL--(BUSINESS WIRE)--January 20, 1995--Quixote Corporation (NASDAQ:QUIX) announced today that its subsidiary Disc Manufacturing, Inc. (DMI) has filed a complaint in the federal court in Los Angeles, CA. against Pioneer Electronics Corp. of Japan, Pioneer Electronics, Inc. (USA), Pioneer Electronics Capital, Inc. and Discovision Associates, which is an unregistered joint venture partnership between Pioneer Electronics, Inc. (USA) and Pioneer Electronics Capital, Inc. DMI has brought this complaint against Pioneer Electronics Corp. of Japan and its subsidiaries for violations of the antitrust laws and acts of unfair competition based on unlawful activities and anticompetitive tactics involving patents related to optical disc technology.

Further, the company announced that Discovision Associates filed a complaint for patent infringement against DMI. Discovision recently filed complaints against other CD disc manufacturing companies, including Technicolor Videocassette, Inc., seeking relief for infringement of Discovison's patents. DMI was one of the first companies to manufacture music optical compact discs in the United States, utilizing the contact printing method in 1983 and the injection molding method in 1985.

DMI previously entered into a licensing agreement for one of Discovision's patents and for more than a year has been studying Discovision's assertions that DMI must license still more of Discovision's patents. DMI and its patent counsel are of the opinion that Discovision's remaining patents do not relate to DMI's manufacturing processes and products, and that DMI has not infringed Discovision's patents.

Discovision's complaint seeks punitive and injunctive relief against DMI. Management believes that under the circumstances of this case that Discovision should not be entitled to injunctive relief even if DMI were found to be infringing Discovision's patents. In the unlikely event that injunctive relief were to be granted against DMI, it would have a material adverse effect on DMI's operations.

Philip E. Rollhaus, Jr., Quixote's President, commented: "We have been in ongoing discussions with the management of Discovision who recently rejected our invitation to visit our manufacturing facilities in an attempt to resolve this dispute. We remain mystified by Discovision's pursuit of licensing agreements relating to patents which are primarily for analog disc and player technology. Based on the opinion of our legal counsel, we believe their complaint is without merit. We intend to aggressively pursue our antitrust and unfair competition complaint against Discovision and its parent company Pioneer Electronics Corp. of Japan, and we will vigorously oppose their complaint. We believe that Discovision alleges patent infringements in the optical disc manufacturing industry based on patents applied for as long as 26 years ago which do not reflect the innovative manufacturing processes and techniques that have more recently been developed for the production of optical compact discs. As an early developer of the optical CD disc, DMI remains at the forefront in the development of innovative optical disc manufacturing processes and products."

Quixote Corporation is a diversified technology company composed of Disc Manufacturing, Inc., the largest independent manufacturer of music compact discs (CDs) and CD-ROM and CD-i discs in the United States; Energy Absorption Systems, Inc., the world's leading manufacturer and marketer of energy- absorbing highway crash cushions and related highway safety products; and Legal Technologies, Inc., a leading designer and supplier of advanced technologies and services for the legal, judicial and court reporting markets.

CONTACT: Quixote Corporation

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