PORTLAND, Ore., April 19 /PRNewswire/ --

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has affirmed the judgment of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California that Electro Scientific Industries, Inc.'s (Nasdaq: ESIO) pioneering link blowing patent is valid and

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/19990831/ESILOGO )

Previously, a District Court jury had rejected General Scanning's allegations that the claims of ESI's patent 5,265,114 entitled, "System and Method for Selectively Laser Processing a Target Structure of One or More Materials of a Multimaterial, Mutilayer Device", were invalid and awarded ESI $13.1 million in damages for General Scanning's willful infringement of the patent. Based on the jury verdict, the District Court prohibited General Scanning and its subsidiaries and parent corporations from making, using, selling or offering for sale in the United States memory repair systems or upgrade kits equipped with 1.3 micron lasers, which infringe the asserted claims of ESI's '114 patent. The U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed the District Court judgments in all respects. The '114 patent expires in 2012.

Donald R. VanLuvanee, Chief Executive Officer and President of ESI said, "We are extremely pleased that the court recognizes the innovation and enforceability of ESI's patented technology. As a technology leader, ESI makes considerable investments in intellectual property rights and we will continue to vigorously protect that investment."

The patented technology is used in ESI's advanced laser repair systems, which produce 64 and 256 megabit memory chips and semiconductors with embedded memory. The systems are enabling technology for the next generation of semiconductor yield improvement and the most advanced laser repair systems available on the market. The systems feature patented laser system technology, operating at a wavelength of 1.3 microns, and offer semiconductor manufacturers a much wider process window and higher yields than systems using conventional 1.047 micron laser technology.

General Scanning Inc. merged with Lumonics Inc. of Kanata, Ontario on March 22, 1999 to form GSI Lumonics Inc.

About ESI

Electro Scientific Industries, headquartered in Portland, Oregon, designs and manufactures sophisticated products used around the world in electronics manufacturing including: laser manufacturing systems for semiconductor yield improvement; production and test equipment for the manufacture of surface mount ceramic capacitors; laser trim systems for precise electrical tuning of circuits; precision laser and mechanical drilling systems for electronic interconnection; and machine vision systems. Electro Scientific Industries is traded on NASDAQ under ESIO. For more information, visit ESI's web site at www.esi.com.