Cognex Sues MvTec

Business Wire, May 27, 2008

Lawsuit Claims Infringement of Cognex's Machine Vision Patents

NATICK, Mass. -- Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ: CGNX) announced today that it has filed a complaint against MvTec Software GmbH and its U.S. subsidiary, MvTec LLC (known collectively as MvTec). The complaint was filed in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts in Boston.

The complaint by Cognex alleges that MvTec's Halcon[TM] machine vision software infringes the claims of at least seven Cognex patents. Cognex is asking the court to enjoin MvTec from making and selling the infringing software, and is seeking unspecified damages in compensation for past infringement. Fuji America Corporation, a company selling semiconductor capital equipment that incorporates MvTec's Halcon software, is also named in the complaint.

"Cognex takes a very strong stand on intellectual property rights, whether we are defending our technology or asserting our patents," said Dr. Robert J. Shillman, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Cognex. "Our success in past cases....against Acacia Research Corporation just last week, and against the Lemelson Partnership in 2004....together with this current action show our fierce determination to protect the advanced machine vision technology that our engineers have developed."

Dr. Shillman continued, "Cognex has made a very significant investment in R&D over the years, and we have a responsibility to both our investors and to our customers who have paid for Cognex proprietary technology to protect that investment. We will be firm in defending our technology against any vision company that makes, uses or sells products that we believe infringe our patents, and any user or manufacturer of equipment that incorporates such products."

About Cognex

Cognex Corporation designs, develops, manufactures and markets machine vision sensors and systems, or devices that can "see." Cognex vision sensors are used in factories around the world to automate the manufacture of a wide range of items and to assure their quality. Cognex is the world's leader in the machine vision industry, having shipped more than 400,000 machine vision systems, representing over $2 billion in cumulative revenue, since the company's founding in 1981. In addition to its corporate headquarters in Natick, Massachusetts, Cognex also has regional offices and distributors located throughout North America, Japan, Europe, Asia and Latin America. Visit Cognex on-line at http://www.cognex.com.