Forgent Networks Announces Intellectual Property Program Update
AUSTIN, TX, Jul 19, 2006 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX News Network) -- Forgent Networks (NASDAQ: FORG) today announced, at the most recent hearing, in Forgent's patent infringement cases involving U.S. Patent No. 6,285,746 (the '746 Patent) in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Tyler Division, Judge Leonard Davis set a Markman hearing on claim construction for November 9, 2006, and set a trial date of May 14, 2007. The court also ordered mediation among the parties to occur prior to the Markman hearing. Mediation has been scheduled to begin on September 11, 2006.
"We are pleased with the pace and progress of this litigation," said Richard Snyder, CEO and chairman of Forgent Networks. "That we will be able to present our case to a jury in 10 months is very encouraging."
On July 14, 2005, Forgent initiated litigation against approximately 15 companies for infringement of the '746 Patent in the Eastern District of Texas, Marshall Division. On September 19, 2005, Scientific-Atlanta and Motorola filed a complaint against Forgent in the Eastern District of Texas, Tyler Division. The defendants include: Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA) (NASDAQ: CMCSK), EchoStar Communications Corporation (NASDAQ: DISH), The DIRECTV Group, Inc. (NYSE: DTV), Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX), and their respective subsidiaries, Cable One, Inc. a subsidiary of The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO), Charter Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: CHTR), Cox Communications, Inc. a subsidiary of family owned Cox Enterprises, Inc.
The '746 Patent, which expires on May 21, 2011, relates to a computer controlled video system allowing playback during recording. During playback, the system reads the video content from the storage component. The '746 Patent derived from application serial number 07/703,685 that was filed on May 21, 1991.
In response to the recent claims construction ruling relating to U.S. Patent No. 4,698,672 (the '672 Patent), Forgent intends to pursue to the fullest extent available all options within the full federal court system. In Addition, the company is working directly with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to clarify and defend its position with respect to the ongoing reexamination of the '672 Patent.
Forgent has pending litigation against approximately 30 companies for infringement of the '672 Patent in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Following the filing of the litigation, 15 companies who were defendants have entered into license agreements.
Additionally, Forgent indicates it has approximately 20 other patents and is currently evaluating them to determine how to best maximize the value of these assets to its shareholders.
Since its inception more than three years ago, Forgent's intellectual property program has generated approximately $115 million in revenues primarily from licensing the '672 Patent to more than 60 different companies in Asia, Europe and the United States. The company's patent portfolio includes the combined inventions of Compression Labs, Inc., VTEL Corporation and Forgent Networks, Inc.
About Forgent
Forgent Networks (NASDAQ: FORG) develops and licenses intellectual property and provides scheduling software to a wide variety of customers. Forgent's intellectual property licensing program is related to communication technologies developed from a diverse and growing patent portfolio. Forgent's software division, NetSimplicity provides a spectrum of scheduling software that enables all sizes of organizations to streamline the scheduling of people, places and things. For additional information please visit www.forgent.com.
Investor contact:
Jay Peterson
512.437.2476
Media contact:
Lee Higgins
512.794.8600
SOURCE: Forgent Networks