News & Events
Intersil and Symbol Join Forces in Defense Pact Against Proxim Allegations

— Intersil and Symbol announce Agreement and other counteractions to Proxim’s "meritless" claims

IRVINE, CA, May 14, 2001 — Intersil Corporation (NASDAQ: ISIL) and Symbol Technologies (NYSE: SBL) today announced completion of an Agreement to combat Proxim’s allegations and legal actions initiated in Massachusetts and Delaware federal courts and the International Trade Commission (ITC) last month.

Both Intersil and Symbol Technologies have denied infringement of any Proxim patents, with Symbol counter-suing Proxim for infringement of four Symbol wireless LAN patents which were developed by Symbol as a result of its pioneering work in the field of wireless LAN radios predating Proxim’s asserted intellectual property. Symbol has also filed a motion to disqualify the law firm representing Proxim in the Delaware action because of its past associations with, and representation of, Symbol.

"I am very pleased that we have reached an agreement with Intersil pursuant to which it will indemnify and defend Symbol against Proxim’s baseless infringement suit. Symbol will continue to cooperate in the defense and this arrangement will also allow Symbol’s legal team to focus its energies on pursuing its suit against Proxim for the infringement of four of Symbol’s patents," said Leonard Goldner, Symbol’s executive vice president and general counsel. "Symbol is seeking injunctive relief as well as damages against Proxim’s RF products, particularly its non-standard proprietary offerings."

Intersil has taken several actions against Proxim in recent weeks. Intersil filed a declaratory judgment action in Delaware’s Federal Court alleging that Proxim is liable for acts of unfair competition, breach of contract and patent misuse. In the declaratory judgment action, Intersil also asserted that its PRISM^® WLAN products do not infringe any valid claims of Proxim’s patents. Before the Massachusetts Federal Court, Intersil filed a motion to transfer the case to Delaware and join it with the case there. This would serve to consolidate the cases and have them heard in Delaware, where both Intersil and Proxim are incorporated. In other actions, Intersil and Agere filed motions to intervene in administrative proceedings before the ITC. A Commission Administrative Law Judge has ruled in favor of Intersil being accorded Intervenor Status and Intersil now expects to defend against Proxim's legal claims in that forum.

"We are pleased to partner with Symbol in this case, given Symbol’s unblemished record of success in patent litigation over the past two decades. We believe that Proxim’s claims against Intersil and the purchasers of our semiconductors are wholly without merit and constitute a calculated move on Proxim’s part to shift attention away from the recent abandonment by leading companies of Proxim’s HomeRF approach in favor of Intersil’s solutions based on the 802.11 global standard," said Steve Moran, vice president and general counsel of Intersil Corporation. "Our PRISM devices do not infringe any valid claims of the patents asserted by Proxim, who is also a customer of our PRISM chipset. We will prosecute this case, both defensively and offensively, to the fullest extent that the law allows."

Adoption of PRISM WLAN Technology
Since introducing the PRISM WLAN chip set in 1996, over fifty companies have incorporated PRISM chips in more than 100 product designs. In a May 2000 report, Cahners In-Stat Group called Intersil "the dominant force in the WLAN chip set marketplace with their PRISM chip sets holding the majority of market share." PRISM technology is designed to comply with the IEEE’s 802.11 global standard, and Intersil is a founding sponsor of the Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance (WECA), whose Wi-Fi™ brand is a mark of compatibility for 802.11-based systems. PRISM/work™ and PRISM/home™ products are used in WLAN systems from industry-leading companies including Actiontec, Alcatel, Cisco, Compaq, 3Com, Dell, D-Link, Linksys, Nokia, Nortel, Samsung, Scientific-Atlanta, Siemens, SOHOware, Sony, SpectraLink, Symbol, and Zoom.

About Symbol
Symbol Technologies, Inc., winner of the 1999 National Medal of Technology, is a global leader in mobile data transaction systems, providing innovative customer solutions based on wireless local area networking for data and voice, application-specific mobile computing and bar code data capture. Symbol’s wireless information appliances connect the physical world of people on the move, packages, paper and shipping pallets, to information systems and the Internet. Today, some 10 million Symbol bar code scanners, mobile computers and wireless LANs are utilized worldwide in markets ranging from retailing to transportation and distribution logistics, manufacturing, parcel and postal delivery, government healthcare and educations. Symbol’s systems and products are used to increase productivity form the factory floor to the retail store, to the enterprise and out to the home. Information about Symbol is available at www.symbol.com and 1-800-722-6234.

About Intersil
Intersil is a leading supplier of semiconductors, reference designs and software for wireless access and communications analog markets. Intersil applies analog, mixed-signal and radio frequency (RF) expertise to products that enable wireless access to broadband media; provide reliable power management for PCs, files servers and portable information appliances; and convert analog and digital signals in cellular and Internet infrastructure. For more information about Intersil, visit the company's Internet homepage at www.intersil.com.

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PRISM is a registered trademark of Intersil Americas Inc.
PRISM/work and PRISM/home are trademarks of Intersil Americas Inc.
Wi-Fi is a trademark of the Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance.
All other trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners.