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Furukawa Electric North America and OFS Fitel LLC File Patent Infringement Suit Against Nufern, Inc.

Posted on: Thursday, 11 August 2005, 09:00 CDT

Furukawa Electric North America, and it's wholly-owned subsidiary OFS Fitel LLC, designer, manufacturer, and supplier of leading edge fiber optic products, announced today that they have commenced federal litigation against Nufern, Inc. (Nufern) alleging that the Connecticut-based company infringes at least ten (10) U.S. patents related to single-mode and multi-mode optical fiber, processes for making optical fiber and methods for writing gratings onto optical fiber.

OFS, formerly the U.S. optical fiber business of Lucent Technologies purchased by Furukawa in 2001, was an early pioneer in a broad range of optical fiber design, manufacturing processes, and systems-related products for telecommunications technologies. "The decision to proceed with this patent infringement filing was carefully considered," said Tim Murray, president of the OFS Optical Fiber Division. "We want everyone to know that we will vigorously protect our intellectual property from companies that illegally use our technology. OFS invests millions of dollars each year in research and development to create new, patented inventions that bring significant value to our customers and are determined to hold our leadership position by utilizing our superior functionality, performance, reliability, low cost structure, and zealously guarding our intellectual property."

The proceedings instituted by Furukawa and OFS come at a time when the technologies developed for the optical telecommunications industry are being used in new applications such as fiber lasers for industrial and military uses, sensor systems for homeland security and oil production, and amplifiers for video distribution in Fiber to the Home (FTTH) applications. "Fiber optic technology is finding its way into many parts of our lives, just the way integrated circuits have done," Murray continued. "Over more than a decade OFS, has assembled a portfolio of optical fiber manufacturing and related technologies, presenting us with compelling opportunities as we help drive the convergence of various technologies and features into next generation of applications of fiber optics."

In a complaint filed yesterday in the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut, Nufern is accused of offering, distributing, and selling optical fiber and optical fiber-based products that infringe several U.S. patents, and is seeking unspecified monetary damages from Nufern as well as a permanent injunction barring the manufacture and sale of Nufern's core suite of optical fiber based products.

The OFS and Furukawa intellectual property portfolio today includes several hundred issued U.S. patents, many assigned from the Lucent patent portfolio as part of the 2001 purchase, and more that are the result of OFS research and development efforts since 2001.

About OFS

OFS is a designer, manufacturer, and supplier of leading edge optical fiber, optical fiber cable, optical connectivity and specialty photonics products for a wide variety of applications and industries. OFS, formerly the Optical Fiber Solutions division of Lucent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: LU), has a proven track record of being first in the industry with application specific fibers, optical connectors, ribbon cables, erbium doped fibers, Raman fiber lasers and more. OFS is committed to providing customers increased value by offering products that deliver lowest cost per bit network solutions, protecting investments through future flexible solutions.

OFS distributes its optical fiber, optical fiber cable, optical connectivity and specialty photonics products directly to end users, as well as through valued distributors, external cable customers and equipment vendors.

OFS is owned by Furukawa Electric, a multi-billion dollar global leader in optical communications. Headquartered in Norcross, GA, OFS operates facilities in Avon, Connecticut; Carrollton, Georgia; Somerset, New Jersey; and Sturbridge, Massachusetts, as well as facilities in Denmark, Germany and Russia. For more information, please visit www.ofsoptics.com.

Source: Business Wire

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