Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirms preliminary injunction against Atmel Corp. and subsidiaries of Atmel and Cirrus Logic.

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 2, 1997--

Appellate court approves U.S. district court ruling barring

further sales and marketing of goods containing copyrighted

sound recordings and trademarks of Roland Corp. U.S.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on March 27, 1997, issued a decision affirming a preliminary injunction against semiconductor manufacturers Atmel Corp. (located in San Jose, Calif.), DREAM S.A. (a France-based subsidiary of Atmel) and Crystal Semiconductor Co. (a Houston-based wholly owned subsidiary of Cirrus Logic Inc.).

Ruling in a lawsuit brought by Roland, the U.S. distributor for Roland, a manufacturer of electronic musical products, a three justice panel of the Ninth Circuit ruled that the United States District Court for the Central District of California did not err in granting a preliminary injunction against Atmel, Dream and Crystal barring the further marketing and sale of computer chips which potentially infringe upon Roland's copyright in the sound recordings contained in Roland's Sound Canvas line of products.

The preliminary injunction, entered Dec. 30, 1996, required Atmel, Dream and Crystal to immediately cease the manufacture, distribution, sale and advertising of any product containing Roland's copyrighted sound recordings, to halt any further use of Roland's "Sound Canvas" and "Roland" trademarks, and to recall certain of the products from the defendants' customers.

In January 1997, the defendants appealed the grant of the preliminary injunction to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which affirmed the grant of the injunction. As a result of this ruling, the preliminary injunction will stay in effect pending trial, which is currently scheduled for late September 1997.

Roland registered a copyright in a series of sound recordings of musical instruments and sound effects fixed in a digital ROM chip. Applications for the copyrighted sound recordings include electronic musical instruments, computer sound cards and karaoke machines.

Roland first became aware of a potential infringement of its sound recordings in late 1995, which was immediately followed by an extensive investigation, including a laboratory waveform analysis, demonstrating that the defendants had copied the output of one of Roland's products containing the copyrighted sound recordings.

To Roland's knowledge, no other manufacturer had ever copied Roland's sound recordings -- widely considered to be among the best in the industry -- for use in competing products. Roland filed suit in September 1996, and immediately sought a preliminary injunction, which was granted in late December.

On March 10, 1997, the District Court held each of the defendants in contempt of court, ruling that, notwithstanding its injunction order barring further marketing and sales of the subject products, as well as an order requiring defendants to recall certain of the subject products from their customers, the products were still being marketed and sold, in violation of the injunction.

Defendants have appealed the contempt citations. These appeals are still pending.

Dennis Houlihan, president of Roland, commented: "We are very pleased with the decision of the appellate court, which reaffirms that the trademark and copyright laws will protect the goodwill associated with Roland's name, as well as the tremendous musicianship and monetary investment of Roland in the creation of the original sound recordings contained in its musical instruments, computer sound cards and other products."

For further information, please contact Roland's outside counsel, Lawrence Iser of Greenberg Glusker Fields Claman and Machtinger LLP, 310/201-7411, or Junpei Yamato, general counsel of Roland, 213/685-5141 x406.

CONTACT: The Phelps Group

Laura Heisman, 310/471-6170, ext. 116

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