Silicon Light Machines Files Patent Office Action; Asserts Prior Ownership of Basic Optical Technology

Business Wire, Jan 23, 2002

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 23, 2002

Silicon Light Machines, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cypress Semiconductor (NYSE:CY), announced today that it has taken action to contest a U.S. patent that was granted to the founders of another company in the optical components field. Silicon Light Machines maintains that certain subject matter of a patent held by the founders of Lightconnect, Inc. of Newark, Calif., was actually first invented by Silicon Light Machines employees.

The patent in question -- U.S. Patent No. 6,169,624 -- was filed on Aug. 11, 1999. It involves engineering techniques employed in manufacturing optical micro-electromechanical systems, or MEMS. MEMS devices are used in display, imaging, and optical communications applications.

Silicon Light Machines has evidence establishing that its employees invented much of the subject matter of this patent prior to its filing date, and thus has requested that the United States Patent and Trademark Office institute interference proceedings between Silicon Light Machines' invention and the '624 patent.

"The intellectual property produced by our highly inventive engineers is the lifeblood of our company," said Tom Werner, CEO of Silicon Light Machines. "We have 22 patents issued to date, with many more pending. By presenting compelling evidence to the US Patent Office, we are confident that the rightful inventorship and ownership of these ideas will be clearly established by an independent party. Protecting our IP is a matter of principle with us. Even if the Patent Office fails to agree with our claim, the results of their decision won't affect our ability to ship current or pending SLM products."

If the Patent Office decides to declare the interference, and if the interference is successful, then Silicon Light Machines will be the sole rightful owner of potentially a majority of the claims of the '624 patent. In that case, Lightconnect will be unable to practice these claims without obtaining a license from Silicon Light Machines.

About Silicon Light Machines

Founded in 1994, Silicon Light Machines is a wholly owned subsidiary of Cypress Semiconductor. Silicon Light Machines' Grating Light Valve(TM) (GLV(TM)) technology is a means for creating a high-performance spatial light modulator on the surface of a silicon chip, and is used in optical components, print, and display related products. The company is located at 385 Moffett Park Dr., Suite 115, Sunnyvale, CA 94089-1208; Telephone 408/541-1990; Fax 408/541-1244. For more information about Silicon Light Machines, visit the company's web address at www.siliconlight.com.

About Cypress

Cypress Semiconductor (NYSE:CY) is "Driving the Communications Revolution"(TM) with high-performance integrated circuits for network infrastructure and access equipment. Leveraging its process and system-level expertise, the company designs and manufactures solutions targeted across wireless and wireline communications. Cypress supports a wide range of industry standards, such as SONET (OC-48 and above), Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), InfiniBand(TM) and Gigabit Ethernet. The company's communications product lines include programmable high-speed physical layer devices (PHYs), wirespeed network search engines (NSEs) and network coprocessors (NCPs), and datapath switching elements (DSEs). Cypress is also the industry's leader in communications timing solutions, networking-optimized communications memories and personal connectivity solutions, such as USB and Bluetooth.

Cypress is a leader in pure optical and optoelectronic technologies designed to push network transmissions to higher performance levels and to satisfy the increasing demand for network bandwidth. With a focus on emerging communications applications, Cypress aims to become the preferred silicon supplier for network infrastructure solutions and for every network data stream to pass through at least one Cypress IC.

Cypress employs 4,000 people worldwide. Its shares are listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol CY. More information about Cypress is accessible on the Web at http://www.cypress.com.

"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Statements herein that are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" involving risks and uncertainties, including by not limited to: the effect of global economic conditions, shifts in supply and demand, market acceptance, the impact of competitive products and pricing, product development, commercialization and technological difficulties, and capacity and supply constraints. Please refer to Cypress's Securities and Exchange Commission filings for a discussion of such risks.

Note to Editors: "Driving the Communications Revolution" and Silicon Light Machines are trademarks of Cypress Semiconductor. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.