ADDING and REPLACING Sisvel-Sandisk: ''Is Confirmed the Seizure Ordered by the Public Prosecutor of Sandisk MP3 Players at IFA 2006''

19/12/2006 - 13:09

Add after last graph of release:

On the basis of a search order issued by Amtsgericht Tiergarten
(district court) of Berlin on August 31, 2006, the Public Prosecutor
together with the customs investigation agency carried out a search on
September 1, 2006 at the booth of SanDisk on the occasion of the IFA
exhibition. There, the Public Prosecutor Berlin seized all SanDisk's
MP3 players, from a total of nine different "Sansa" product lines, as
well as the corresponding advertising material. In deciding that the
seizure was lawful, the Court overruled the earlier decision of the
Amtsgericht Tiergarten which had considered the seizure
disproportionate notwithstanding an initial suspicion of patent
violation.

Sisvel has filed claims of patent infringement against SanDisk in
litigation in The Netherlands, Germany, and the United Kingdom
claiming that SanDisk 's MP3 players infringe patents that Sisvel
license and seeking an injunction and damages. An additional lawsuit
against SanDisk, also claiming that SanDisk's MP3 players are
infringing, has been filed by Audio MPEG, Sisvel's subsidiary, in the
United States (Eastern District of Virginia).

The corrected release reads:

Sisvel-Sandisk: ''Is Confirmed the Seizure Ordered by the Public
Prosecutor of Sandisk MP3 Players at IFA 2006''

"There Are Sufficient Grounds for Suspicion of Deliberate Patent
Infringement" a Decision by the Criminal Chamber of the Landgericht
Berlin

The Criminal Chamber of the Landgericht (regional court) Berlin in
Germany has recently ruled that the seizure ordered by the Public
Prosecutor's Office of Berlin of all of the MP3 players marketed as
part of SanDisk's "Sansa" product lines and the related advertising
material exhibited at the SanDisk booth at IFA 2006 was legal. In its
decision, the Berlin court stated that it was "of the opinion that
there are sufficient grounds for suspicion of deliberate patent
infringement". Since all the other legal requirements were also met,
the Berlin court confirmed that the seizure of the SanDisk MP3 players
and the advertising material was legitimate.

"It was good to learn about the ruling of the Court," said Ing.
Paolo D'Amato, Ceo of Sisvel Spa. "SanDisk should not be surprised by
this decision. All the MP3 players sold by the most important consumer
electronics companies in the world are licensed under the patents that
Audio MPEG and Sisvel license, including the famous iPod of Apple, the
new Zune of Microsoft, the award winning Zen of Creative, and all the
MP3-capable cell phones sold by Motorola, Nokia, and Sony-Ericsson,
while the MP3 players sold by SanDisk are not."