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SpatialNews Press Release
LIZARDTECH VS. EARTH RESOURCE MAPPING LITIGATION PROCEEDS TO APPEAL
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SEATTLE, April 23, 2001-On April 18, 2001, the U.S. District Court in
Seattle granted LizardTech's request for an immediate appeal of the court's
December 11, 2000, ruling that Earth Resource Mapping's ECW technology does
not infringe LizardTech's MrSID patent. LizardTech will now appeal the
patent ruling to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, in
Washington, D.C. While the appeal is pending, all other claims in the
litigation between LizardTech and Earth Resource Mapping (ERM) are stayed.
The appeal can be expected to take a year or more.
Background: LizardTech filed suit against ERM in October 1999, for breach
of contract - maintaining ERM failed to abide by the terms of a software
licensing agreement between ERM and LizardTech; copyright infringement -
maintaining ERM included computer code owned by LizardTech in ERM's products
in the absence of any right or license to do so; trademark infringement -
maintaining ERM used LizardTech trademarks as metatags and keywords on its
Web site; false advertising - maintaining ERM published a white paper
containing false statements about the MrSID products; and patent
infringement - maintaining that ERM's ECW compression technology infringes
LizardTech's licensed patent for MrSID (US Patent No. 5,710,835).
On December 11, 2000, without a hearing, the court ruled that ECW did not
infringe the MrSID patent. LizardTech maintains that the court applied an
incorrect legal standard and reached an erroneous conclusion in this ruling.
Trial on the remaining non-patent claims had been scheduled for January 22,
2001, but the court struck the date three weeks before trial. LizardTech
filed a motion asking the court to certify its patent ruling for immediate
appeal, rather than waiting for final judgment on the non-patent claims
before appellate review of the non-patent issues. LizardTech also argued
that it would be more efficient to resolve the patent appeal first so that,
if successful on its appeal, there would need be only a single trial on both
the non-patent and patent claims.
"We are pleased with the court's ruling," said John Grizz Deal, president
and CEO of LizardTech. "We do not believe the court read the MrSID patent
correctly last December, and in certifying the issue for immediate appeal we
believe the court has recognized that reasonable minds can differ as to
whether the ruling was correct. We are confident the Court of Appeals will
agree with our interpretation of the MrSID patent. We are also pleased that
the remainder of the case is stayed pending the appeal. We didn't think it
would be very efficient to have one trial now and then another trial later
if we are successful on appeal."
Fans of LizardTech's MrSID should note that ERM's recently-issued ECW patent
is irrelevant to the question of whether ECW infringes the MrSID patent. A
patent permits the holder to prevent others from infringing on the methods
specifically claimed in the patent, but it doesn't necessarily permit the
holder to practice the methods claimed in the patent. That is, practicing
one's patent may result in infringement of other underlying patents.
LizardTech maintains that ERM cannot practice ECW without infringing on the
MrSID patent. Reports in some of the press that ERM's patent on ECW somehow
bolsters ERM's argument that ECW doesn't infringe MrSID simply reflect a
misunderstanding of intellectual property law.
About LizardTech
LizardTech Inc. is one of the world's leaders in imaging technologies. A
privately held company, LizardTech is committed to providing tools to
deliver high-quality content instantly over the Internet. The company
provides innovative solutions that optimize bandwidth and provide immediate
access to high-resolution, multipurpose digital images and multimedia
content. LizardTech licensed Generation I of its MrSID technology from Los
Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and acquired its DjVu technology from AT&T
Labs for the commercialization of both product lines. LizardTech is
integrating its next-generation image software into a wide variety of
platforms and applications. LizardTech's software is currently installed on
more than 25 million desktops and integrated into over 200 applications.
LizardTech has offices in Seattle and Amsterdam. Additional information
about LizardTech can be found at www.lizardtech.com.
LizardTech, MrSID, DjVu and the LizardTech logo are trademarks, MrSID and
DjVu are registered trademarks in the United States, and all are the
property of LizardTech Inc. All other trademarks are property of their
respective owners.
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