SANTA ANA, Calif., April 23, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- STEC, Inc. (Nasdaq:STEC), a designer, manufacturer and marketer of high-performance, solid-state drives (SSDs), today announced that in light of the recent allegations of patent infringement by Seagate Technology, the company has engaged the services of the law firm of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP (WilmerHale).
WilmerHale has a staff of more than 1,000 lawyers with offices throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. The firm's practice includes more than 350 litigators with unmatched trial, appellate and Supreme Court experience, and includes an intellectual property practice enriched by the expertise of more than 120 attorneys and technology specialists holding scientific or technical degrees. In regards to some of WilmerHale's most recent cases, the firm:
* Represented Broadcom in a major series of disputes with Qualcomm,
including seven separate cases in three separate forums,
implicating billions of dollars in revenues in the market for
advanced computer chips for use in cellular telephones.
WilmerHale prevailed in each of the three cases to reach trial.
* Successfully defended STMicroelectronics (ST) in two cases
initiated in the U.S. International Trade Commission by SanDisk.
SanDisk initiated the first investigation based on a patent
relating to flash memory circuits, for which it had obtained
an exclusion order against Samsung. WilmerHale convinced the
Commission, following a seven-day trial, that ST had not
infringed the patent. WilmerHale also prevailed in a second
investigation, initiated by SanDisk shortly after the
termination of the first proceeding, based on the same patent
as in the first investigation, as well as an additional patent.
"We are extremely confident in our technology and patents in the area of SSDs and IC stacking and equally confident in the abilities of our attorneys at WilmerHale," said Manouch Moshayedi, chairman and chief executive officer of STEC. "They have shown a consistent track record of success in litigation and defense of their clients over their 90-year history, and we believe they will do an excellent job defending our company against this lawsuit.
"We sincerely believe that our shareholders will receive the best representation possible in the courts by having WilmerHale at our side.
"We also believe that the courts will side in our favor and find that our products were being manufactured and sold by us into the market long before any such patents were filed by Seagate as indicated, for example, by our product offerings that were listed in our initial Registration Statement on Form S-1 filed with the SEC on March 15, 2000.
"Since the news of the filing of this lawsuit by Seagate became public, we have only received sentiments of support and positive remarks from our largest customers with the basic messages of full speed ahead with integration of our SSDs into their systems."
More information about WilmerHale is available at http://www.wilmerhale.com.
About STEC
STEC, Inc., with headquarters in Santa Ana, California, designs, manufactures and markets high performance memory and storage solutions. For more information, visit the company's web site at www.stec-inc.com.
The STEC logo is available at http://www.primenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=1079
STEC is a registered trademark of STEC, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks referred to herein are the property of their respective owners.
Safe Harbor Statement:
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, statements concerning: our assessment about the lawsuit, our confidence in WilmerHale, our defense of the lawsuit, belief that the courts will side in our favor, confidence in our technology and intellectual property portfolio and reaction from our largest customers. Such forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and involve inherent risks and uncertainties, including factors that could delay, divert or change any of them, and could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially from current expectations. Important factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements are detailed under "Risk Factors" in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission made from time to time by the Company, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K, its quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, and its current reports on Form 8-K. Other factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements include the following risks: the invalidation or circumvention of our patents and intellectual property, the unexpected cost of prolonged intellectual property litigation, intellectual property litigation diverting the efforts of our technical and management personnel, results of litigation is inherently uncertain, risk that our products could be enjoined by court, and any adverse result in litigation could lead to our obligation to pay significant damages and/or obtain a license. The information contained in this press release is a statement of STEC's present intention, belief or expectation. STEC may change its intention, belief or expectation, at any time and without notice, based upon any changes in such factors, in STEC's assumptions or otherwise. STEC undertakes no obligation to release publicly any revisions to any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.