Validity of Actel patent involved in Quicklogic litigation confirmed by U.S. Patent Office

Business Wire, Dec 21, 1994

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 21, 1994--Actel Corp., (NASDAQ:ACTL) the leading supplier of field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) based on antifuse technology, Wednesday announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office had confirmed the patentability of all claims of a key Actel patent, United States Patent No. 4,758,745.

The '745 patent is one of four patents that Actel asserted against Quicklogic Corp. in a patent infringement suit filed earlier this year. After Actel filed the suit, Quicklogic presented to the Patent Office, in a re-examination proceeding, all of the "prior art" that Quicklogic claimed invalidated the '745 patent.

"As we expected, the Patent Office rejected all of QuickLogic's arguments and certified the validity of all claims," said Actel attorney David Van De Hey. "We anticipate that the same conclusion will be reached in our litigation with Quicklogic."

"Actel currently holds 59 U.S. patents," Van De Hey added, "which represent years of research and development effort and investment. We are resolute in our commitment to defend our intellectual property, including patents, whenever and however challenged."

About Actel

Actel is the leading supplier of antifuse-based FPGAs and associated CAE software development systems and programming hardware. Actel FPGAs are used by designers of industrial, computer and space systems to differentiate their products, reduce time-to-market and development costs, and improve system size and performance.

CONTACT: Actel Corp.

              Buford Barr or David Van De Hey, 408/739-1010
              Alliance Public Relations
              Jim Burkhardt, 408/748-0293
              Matthew Quint Public Relations
              Matthew Quint, 510/651-9744