Harlequin Files Formal Response to Electronics for Imaging Lawsuit

Business Wire, Dec 24, 1998

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 24, 1998--Harlequin announced today that on Monday, December 21, 1998, the company filed its formal response to the lawsuit recently filed against it by Electronics for Imaging, Inc. (NASDAQ:EFII) ("EFI") in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California.

In its response, Harlequin denied infringement of the patents named in the lawsuit. The patents are US Patent No. 4,500,919 (commonly referred to as the "Schreiber patent"), US Patent No. 4,941,038 (originally issued to Eric Walowit) and US Patent No. 5,212,546 (issued to Efraim Arazi), all of which EFI has broadly asserted against Harlequin(R) ScriptWorks(R) and Harlequin ICC Profile Processor(TM) products. In addition, Harlequin denied that it has breached its license agreement with EFI for the Schreiber patent.

Harlequin raised several defenses in its response against EFI's claims of patent infringement. Among other things, Harlequin asserted in its response that the patents are invalid and unenforceable because the claimed inventions have been anticipated by prior art or are obvious in view of the prior art.

Harlequin also asserted that EFI's patents are unenforceable because EFI has misused them in order to interfere with Harlequin's business relationships and is attempting to extend the application of its patents to products clearly not covered by such patents. Harlequin believes that EFI's filing of this litigation in order to preserve its monopoly share of the market, while knowing that its patents are either invalid, unenforceable or not infringed, is an act of patent misuse.

Harlequin seeks dismissal of all of EFI's claims in the case.

Compose Systems, Inc., charged by EFI with infringing the same three patents with Compose's Express Color Utility, also filed its response on Monday in which it also denied EFI's claims of infringement.

Editors' Notes:

With a rapidly growing worldwide base of OEM partners, Harlequin is recognized internationally as a leading supplier of open systems-based software for digital printing and publishing applications. Since it was founded in 1986, the company has been dedicated to the development and delivery of highly creative and effective solutions to customers' problems - from telecommunications software to color management technology. Harlequin has grown into a global software company with world-class expertise in high quality digital printing and publishing, intelligence analysis, information management, software development and delivery tools, and image sequence processing. The company has offices in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia.

Harlequin and ScriptWorks are registered trademarks and Harlequin ICC Profile Processor is a trademark of Harlequin Group plc. All other brand or product names are the trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

For more information about Harlequin and its products, visit their Website at: www.harlequin.com