Pixelplus Announces Korea Intellectual Property Office Rulings

SEOUL, South Korea /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Pixelplus Co., Ltd., a leading fabless semiconductor company in Korea that designs, develops, and markets CMOS image sensors for various consumer electronics applications, announced it obtained a completely positive and affirmative ruling from the Intellectual Property Tribunal of the Korea Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) granting the company's request to effectively cancel and invalidate the disputed contact hole process patent claimed by MagnaChip Semiconductor (MagnaChip).

The company, however, did not obtain a positive ruling from KIPO on the cancellation and invalidation of the disputed color filter patent alleged by MagnaChip. To reverse this ruling and obtain a positive decision on the color filter patent, the company will file an appeal with the patent court. Despite KIPO's ruling on the color filter patent, the company is pleased it received completely favorable and commendatory rulings from KIPO on three of the four patents granting the company's request to effectively cancel and invalidate the disputed photo diode and sensor patents in September 2006 and also the disputed contact hole process patent discussed above. These positive rulings from KIPO are consistent with Pixelplus' expectations and also reinforce the company's focus and commitment to create proprietary design technologies.

Turning to the case in Seoul Central District Court (court), similar to MagnaChip's claims on the photo diode and sensor patents, which were completely and effectively withdrawn from MagnaChip's complaint in Court in October 2006, the company believes MagnaChip's claims on the color filter and contact hole process patents are groundless and without merit. In moving forward, the company remains highly confident and will continue to execute all necessary and proper actions to aggressively and vigorously oppose MagnaChip's remaining claims in court. Pixelplus will issue further announcements as there are new material developments in this case.

About Pixelplus Co., Ltd.
Pixelplus is a South Korea-based developer of high-performance, high- resolution, and cost-effective CMOS image sensors for use primarily in mobile camera phones. In addition to mobile phones, Pixelplus provides CMOS image sensors and SoC solutions for use in web cams and notebook embedded cameras, toys and games, and security and surveillance system applications. As a fabless semiconductor company, Pixelplus is focused on creating proprietary design technologies to develop CMOS image sensors with sharp, colorful, and enhanced image quality, size efficiency, and low power consumption.