U.S. Patent Office Grants Reexamination Certificate Reaffirming Validity of National Instruments' LabVIEW Patent.

National Instruments' Intellectual Property Rights Vindicated Before U.S. Patent Office

AUSTIN, Texas -- National Instruments (Nasdaq:NATI) announced today that the United States Patent Office issued a reexamination certificate upholding the validity of one of National Instruments' patents, U.S. Patent No. 5,301,336 ("'336 patent"), which relates to National Instruments' LabVIEW software.

The reexamination process resolves a challenge started on June 16, 2004, by an anonymous petitioner. The Patent Office's decision to reaffirm the validity of the '336 patent further strengthens a patent that was already found valid in Federal Court litigation in the Eastern District of Texas. In that litigation, a federal jury rejected all challenges to the patent's validity and the jury's verdict was later affirmed on appeal by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

"We are pleased that National Instruments' intellectual property rights in the '336 patent have been vindicated once again before the U.S. Patent Office," said David Hugley, NI vice president and general counsel. "LabVIEW has had a revolutionary impact on scientists and engineers with its innovative virtual instrumentation approach. We have invested heavily in the intellectual property in LabVIEW and the reexamination further protects and validates our intellectual property."

The reexamined '336 patent further protects National Instruments' LabVIEW technology with 99 claims. The strengthened '336 patent continues to provide protection for National Instruments' LabVIEW technology through April 5, 2011.

About LabVIEW

For more than 20 years, NI LabVIEW graphical development has revolutionized the development of scalable test, measurement, and control applications. Regardless of experience, engineers and scientists can rapidly and cost effectively interface with measurement and control hardware, analyze data, share results, and distribute systems. National Instruments offers a variety of add-on modules and toolkits for LabVIEW, including toolkits that provide intuitive user interfaces to instrument, control and view data from third-party design tools.

About National Instruments

National Instruments (www.ni.com) is transforming the way engineers and scientists design, prototype and deploy systems for measurement, automation and embedded applications. NI empowers customers with off-the-shelf software such as NI LabVIEW and modular cost-effective hardware, and sells to a broad base of more than 25,000 different companies worldwide, with no one customer representing more than 3 percent of revenue and no one industry representing more than 10 percent of revenue. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, NI has more than 4,000 employees and direct operations in nearly 40 countries. For the past eight years, FORTUNE magazine has named NI one of the 100 best companies to work for in America. Readers can obtain investment information from the company's investor relations department by calling 512-683-5090, e-mailing [e-mail] or visiting www.ni.com/nati.

LabVIEW, National Instruments, NI and ni.com are trademarks of National Instruments. Other product and company names listed are trademarks or trade names of their respective companies.