STEC Official Response to Patent Infringement Claims From Seagate: Financial News

STEC Official Response to Patent Infringement Claims From Seagate
Tuesday April 15, 2008 8:30 am ET
Suggested Patent Infringement Claims are Without Merit

SANTA ANA, Calif., April 15, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- STEC, Inc. (NasdaqGM:STEC - News), a designer, manufacturer and marketer of high performance solid state drives (SSDs), announced today that it has received notice of a patent infringement lawsuit brought by Seagate Technology LLC (NYSE:STX - News), Seagate Technology International, Seagate Singapore International Headquarters Pte. Ltd. and Maxtor Corporation in United States District Court, Northern District of California, alleging infringement of U.S. Patent Nos. 6,404,647 (issued in 2002), 6,849,480 (issued in 2005), 6,336,174 (issued in 2002) and 7,042,664 (issued in 2006).

STEC is one of the first companies to build SSDs, having designed, manufactured and shipped SSDs as early as 1994, long before any of the suggested patents were issued to Seagate. Given the effect SSDs are having on the HDD market, STEC believes that Seagate's lawsuit is completely without merit and primarily motivated by competitive concerns rather than a desire to protect its intellectual property. STEC believes that Seagate's action is a desperate move to disrupt how aggressively customers are embracing STEC's Zeus-IOPS technology and changing the balance of power in enterprise storage. Seagate is sending a clear signal that it recognizes STEC as the leader in the SSD business and is attempting to slow down part of the growth that STEC is gaining through its SSD offering, particularly in the enterprise segment. STEC will aggressively pursue its defense to this infringement action.

In addition, STEC will also closely examine the patents asserted by Seagate as STEC believes it held such technology including prior patents, dating more than a decade prior to any of Seagate's patents. Although STEC is in the process of analyzing the claims in this lawsuit, STEC believes that Seagate's asserted patents pertain to technologies where STEC has years of prior experience and/or patents. STEC has significant patents related to SSD which have been developed through the decades of experience STEC has with developing, manufacturing and shipping SSDs. Beyond that long history, STEC also believes that many of Seagate's claims are not relevant to SSD. For example, STEC was one of the originators of stacking technology with patents dating back to the mid-1990s, while Seagate's patent on this matter was issued in 2005.

Through this process, STEC will determine if Seagate is misappropriating any of STEC's core technologies; STEC will take appropriate action to protect its interests, including seeking the invalidation of Seagate's patents.

``Throughout our 18 year history, STEC has been diligent in its pursuit of industry-changing technology while entirely respectful of the intellectual property that has been developed by others. The allegation put forth by Seagate in recently published articles that STEC '...ha(s) stolen (its) patents,' is simply not accurate nor in line with STEC's long history of success and fair play in these markets,'' said Manouch Moshayedi, chairman and CEO of STEC. ``In fact, STEC believes these allegations are in response to the competitive threat that we as a leading developer of innovative SSD technologies pose to the HDD industry. We view this action as Seagate's attempt to slow down the growth that STEC's SSD business is experiencing, particularly in the enterprise segment. We have a high degree of confidence in STEC's intellectual property portfolio.''

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 http://www.stec-inc.com.

The STEC logo is available at http://www.primenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=1079

Safe Harbor Statement:

This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, statements concerning: our belief about Seagate's motivation for the lawsuit, our initial assessment of claims made by Seagate in the lawsuit, the outcome of the lawsuit, our defense of the lawsuit and our intellectual property portfolio. 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.

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.