Business Objects Issues Statement on Informatica Lawsuit
SAN JOSE, Calif. & PARIS - (BUSINESS WIRE) - Business Objects (Nasdaq:BOBJ)(Euronext Paris ISIN code: FR0004026250 -
BOB), the world’s leading provider of business
intelligence (BI) solutions, today released information regarding the
Informatica patent infringement lawsuit relating to technology developed
by Acta Technologies. The case has been in litigation for the past four
and a half years, and was inherited by Business Objects when the company
acquired Acta Technologies in July, 2002. Since then, Business Objects
has successfully narrowed the lawsuit from its original scope to now
focus exclusively on a discrete product feature. Today, the jury decided
in favor of Informatica and awarded damages of $25 million. However, the
case is ongoing, pending the judge’s decision
on the enforceability of the two patents in question and the final
amount of damages.
“While we are disappointed with the jury’s
decision, the case is not over,” stated Brian
Stine, acting general counsel of Business Objects. “The
trial court must still determine whether Informatica engaged in
inequitable conduct in failing to disclose prior art regarding these
patents to the US Patent and Trademark Office. We remain confident that
we will prevail.”
“Should the patents be shown to be
enforceable, we are prepared to quickly replace the code in our shipping
products and will continue to provide our customers with the quality
solutions they have come to expect from Business Objects Enterprise
Information Management products,” continued
Stine.
Informatica filed the suit against Acta in July 2002, asserting that the
ActaWorks product (now sold by Business Objects as part of Data
Integrator), infringes several Informatica patents including U.S. Patent
Nos. 6,014,670 and 6,339,775, both titled "Apparatus and Method for
Performing Data Transformations in Data Warehousing."
About Business Objects
Business Objects is the world’s leading
business intelligence (BI) software company, with more than 42,000
customers worldwide, including over 80 percent of the Fortune 500.
Business Objects helps organizations of all sizes create a trusted
foundation for decision making, gain better insight into their business,
and optimize performance. The company's innovative business intelligence
suite, BusinessObjects XI includes the award-winning Crystal line of
reporting and data visualization software. Business Objects has also
built the industry's strongest and most diverse partner community, and
offers consulting and education services to help customers effectively
deploy their business intelligence projects.
Business Objects has dual headquarters in San Jose, Calif., and Paris,
France. The company's stock is traded on both the Nasdaq (BOBJ) and
Euronext Paris (ISIN: FR0004026350 - BOB) stock exchanges. More
information about the company can be found at businessobjects.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This statement contains forward-looking statements concerning the
pending Informatica patent infringement lawsuit, the validity of the
patents in question, the judge’s decision on
Business Objects’ defense of inequitable
conduct by Informatica and Informatica’s
request for injunctive relief, the impact of this lawsuit on our ongoing
Enterprise Information Management business and our customers and
Business Objects’ appeal of the jury verdict
if the judge finds that the patents are valid. Actual events or results
may differ materially from those described in this Statement due to a
number of risks and uncertainties. These potential risks and
uncertainties include, among others, the outcome of our pending motion
of inequitable conduct by Informatica, the judge’s
decision on Informatica’s request for a
permanent injunction, the outcome of any appeal by Business Objects of
the jury’s verdict and the time and expense
required to replace the affected source code in Business Objects’
products. Information about other potential factors that could affect
Business Objects is included in Business Objects' Form 10-K for the year
ended December 31, 2006, which is on file with the Securities and
Exchange Commission and available at the Securities and Exchange
Commission’s website at www.sec.gov.
Business Objects is not obligated to undertake any obligation to update
these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances
after the date of this document.
The Business Objects logo, BusinessObjects, Crystal Reports, Crystal
Decisions, Web Intelligence, and Xcelsius are trademarks or registered
trademarks of Business Objects in the United States and/or other
countries. All other names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their
respective owners.