MELVILLE, N.Y. & SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--CopyTele, Inc. (“CTI”) (OTCBB: COPY) today filed a lawsuit in the Federal District Court for the Northern District of California against AU Optronics Corp. and E Ink Holdings, alleging an elaborate scheme to steal valuable, patented display technologies developed by CopyTele, and used in many popular consumer electronics devices. The lawsuit, alleging breach of contract, fraud, conspiracy to monopolize, unfair business practices, antitrust, and other anti-competitive acts, seeks punitive and treble damages. CTI also filed a separate patent infringement lawsuit in the Federal District Court for the Northern District of California against E Ink.
Robert Berman, CTI’s President and CEO stated, “This is a case about two, multi-billion dollar foreign companies, conspiring to steal valuable, patented technologies from a small U.S. company, with the intention of causing significant financial hardship so that CTI could not protect itself and fight back. When you consider the potential impact of CTI’s technologies on broad product categories currently dominated by AUO and E Ink such as displays for televisions, computers, tablets, and eReaders, it is not surprising that they would want these technologies. CTI now has the resources and expertise necessary to ensure that AUO and E Ink are held accountable for their transgressions.” Berman, who previously ran Acacia Research Corporation and has a successful track record of taking on large companies on behalf of small inventors, joined CTI as President and CEO in October.
CTI is represented in the lawsuits by San Francisco based Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, who together with the U.S. Justice Department, recently lead antitrust and unfair competition actions against AU Optronics, resulting in criminal fines of $500 million, civil settlements of $199.5 million, and Federal prison sentences for several top AUO officials. AU Optronics is based in Taiwan and is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of flat panel displays for televisions, computers, and tablets, including Apple’s iPad. E Ink, also based in Taiwan, is the world’s largest supplier of electrophoretic displays including displays for e-Reader products such as Amazon’s Kindle, and Barnes and Noble’s Nook.
About CopyTele, Inc.
CTI develops and acquires patented technologies for the purposes of patent monetization and patent assertion. The company currently has patent portfolios in the areas of Managed Key Encryption, E-Paper® Electrophoretic Displays, Nano Field Emission Displays, and Micro Electro Mechanical Systems Displays. Additional information and copies of the Complaints are available at www.CTIpatents.com and www.CopyTele.com.
Forward-Looking Statements: Statements that are not historical fact may be considered forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are not statements of historical facts, but rather reflect CopyTele's current expectations concerning future events and results. We generally use the words “believes,” “expects,” “intends,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “likely,” “will” and similar expressions to identify forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements, including those concerning our expectations, involve risks, uncertainties and other factors, some of which are beyond our control, which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks, uncertainties and factors include, but are not limited to, those factors set forth in “Item 1A – “Risk Factors and other sections of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2011 as well as in our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Current Reports on Form 8-K. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. You are cautioned not to unduly rely on such forward-looking statements when evaluating the information presented in this press release.