FREMONT, Calif, Oct. 14, 2005 – Lexar Media, Inc. (Nasdaq:LEXR), a world leader in advanced digital media technologies, today announced that the trial court has entered final judgment in Lexar Media, Inc. v. Toshiba Corporation et al. In entering the judgment, the Superior Court for the State of California affirmed the jury verdict delivered in March in the case against Toshiba Corporation (JP:6502) and Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. (PNK:TOSBF.PK) in which the jury awarded Lexar over $465 million in damages based on Toshiba Corporation and Toshiba America Electronics Components’ breach of fiduciary duty and theft of trade secrets from Lexar.
“We are very pleased that, after six months of Toshiba’s efforts to challenge the jury verdict, the Court has rejected those challenges and entered judgment confirming that verdict in every respect,” said Eric Whitaker, executive vice president and general counsel, Lexar. “The jury’s verdict was based on a mountain of evidence, mostly from Toshiba’s own files, establishing that Toshiba deliberately violated its duties to Lexar and that a large number of the products currently manufactured and sold by Toshiba contain Lexar’s trade secrets. We are confident that Toshiba’s remaining efforts to challenge the verdict, including its inevitable appeal, will fare no better than Toshiba’s earlier attempts.”
Toshiba has filed numerous motions challenging the verdict. As late as this week, Toshiba filed an emergency appeal asking the court of appeals to review the case and to delay the entry of judgment. That request was immediately denied.
“The importance of this judgment is underscored by Toshiba’s multiple emergency filings to delay it over the past several days,” Whitaker continued.
Now that the judgment is final, California law requires that interest accrue on the amount of the judgment at the statutory rate of 10 percent simple interest, which is approximately $46 million per year or $127,298 per day.
Lexar is also pursuing an ongoing case against Toshiba in the Federal Court for the Northern District of California, accusing the Japanese electronics giant of patent infringement. The company’s case for patent infringement against Toshiba on more than ten of its patents remains pending in Federal Court. Discovery is scheduled to continue through early 2006 and Lexar expects that a trial will take place on one of the patent actions in late 2006.
“We have always been very confident in the strength of our patent case,” said Whitaker. “The jury verdict and final judgment in the state case strengthens our position in the federal patent case. We look forward to going to trial to further protect our significant investment as a pioneer in NAND flash system technology.”
The patents at issue in the federal case include U.S. Patent Nos. 5,479,638; 5,818,781; 5,907,856; 5,930,815; 6,034,897; 6,040,997; 6,134,151; 6,141,249; 6,145,051; 6,202,138; 6,262,918; 6,374,337; and 6,397,314. Lexar is seeking damages as well as an injunction against Toshiba for those products that infringe Lexar’s patents, including its flash memory chips, flash cards and digital cameras and USB flash drives.
Details on Lexar’s litigation can be found at http://www.lexar.com/litigation.
About Lexar Media, Inc.
Lexar is a leading marketer and manufacturer of flash memory cards, USB flash drives, card readers and ATA controller technology for the digital photography, consumer electronics, industrial and communications markets. The company holds over 87 issued or allowed controller and system patents, and licenses its technology to companies including Olympus, Samsung Electronics, SanDisk and Sony. For more information, please call 1-800-789-9418 or visit http://www.lexar.com.
