U.S. District Court rules that Roland likely to succeed in lawsuit claiming infringement of copyright and trademarks in sound recordings.

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 13, 1997--

U.S. District Court enjoins Atmel Corp. and Cirrus Logic 

subsidiary from further acts of copyright and trademark

infringement

The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California has issued a preliminary injunction against semiconductor manufactuers 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 Corp. U.S., the U.S. distributor for Roland Corp., one of the world's leading manufacturers of electronic musical instruments, U.S. District Court Judge Dickran Tevrizian ruled on Dec. 30, 1996, that Roland has demonstrated a likelihood of success on its claim that Atmel, DREAM and Crystal had infringed Roland's copyright in the sound recordings of musical instruments and sound effects contained in Roland's Sound Canvas line of products, which include musical instruments and computer sound cards.

Tevrizian similarly found a likelihood of success that Roland would prevail in its claim that the defendants have unlawfully utilized the "Roland" and "Sound Canvas" registered trademarks in connection with the sale of their competing products.

The preliminary injunction requires the defendants to immediately cease the manufacture, distribution, sale and advertising of any product containing Roland's copyrighted sound recordings, and to halt any further use of Roland's trademarks.

On Jan. 3, 1997, the U.S. District Court denied the defendants' motion for a stay of the preliminary injunction pending appeal to the U.S. Circuit of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. On Jan. 9, 1997, the defendants filed a notice of appeal to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Dennis Houlihan, president of Roland Corp. U.S., commented as follows: "The sound recordings contained in Roland's musical instruments and computer sound cards are among the best in the industry and give Roland a competitive advantage in the sale of its merchandise. To Roland's knowledge, no other manufacturer has ever copied Roland's sound recordings for use in competing products.

"We are very pleased with the court's ruling, 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 and other manufacturers in the creation of the original sound recordings contained in their musical instruments, computer sound cards and other products."

Roland first became aware of a potential infringement of its sound recordings in December 1995, which was immediately followed by an extensive investigation, including a laboratory waveform analysis, which demonstrateed to the suit by admitting that, in the proceusical instruments were not copyrightable.

. The evidence demonstrates the large amount of time, expense, expertise and labor involved in developing, mixing, recording, producing and composing the Sound Recordings ... the resultant Sound Recordings are the copyrighted expression of Roland and they have been admittedly copied by Defendants."

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