Patent Law

The following is excerpted from a November 13, 2009 FormFactor press releaseavailable at Marketwire:

FormFactor, Inc. (NASDAQ: FORM) announced today The International Trade Commission (ITC) issued a final determination in the investigation of probe card manufacturers Phicom Corporation and Micronics Japan Company, Ltd., Investigation No. 337-TA-621. In the Final Determination, certain of FormFactor's asserted patent claims were found valid, but not infringed, and other asserted patent claims were found invalid.The ITC has terminated the investigation without issuing an exclusionary order against any products. The ITC released only a three-page notice and indicated that the full Final Determination would be issued later.

The Company will carefully evaluate the Final Determination when it becomes available and assess further proceedings, including any potential appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and the pending district court patent infringement litigations against Phicom and Micronics, which were stayed after initiation of the ITC investigation and include other FormFactor patents not at issue before the ITC. The company remains committed to protecting its intellectual property rights, and preventing the unauthorized use of its intellectual property.

FormFactor's advanced wafer probe card products and solutions are relied upon by its customers to increase their testing efficiency and enable their technology roadmaps. The Company believes the Final Determination will have no immediate business impact.

Read the full press release here.