Finance Home - Yahoo! - Help

[ Latest Headlines | Market Overview | News Alerts ]

Press Release

Roxio Answers and Countersues in Gracenote Lawsuit

MILPITAS, Calif., June 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Roxio, Inc. (Nasdaq: ROXI - news), The Digital Media Company, today announced that it has responded to the lawsuit filed by Gracenote, Inc. on May 10, 2001 and filed a number of additional counterclaims. Roxio alleges that Gracenote fraudulently obtained its '680 patent and its CDDB trademark by failing to disclose certain key information to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The counterclaims filed by Roxio also include antitrust claims based on Gracenote's alleged misuse of the '680 patent and breach of contract claims based upon Gracenote's termination of service to Roxio's end users. On May 17, 2001, Gracenote filed a motion for a temporary restraining order seeking to block Roxio from shipping certain of its products. On May 24, 2001, the Court denied Gracenote's request finding that Gracenote failed to demonstrate a likelihood of success on the merits.

``Gracenote sought to obtain patent rights to publicly released software without informing the U.S. Patent Office of the prior art, sought to trademark a generic acronym (CDDB) by misleading the U.S. Trademark Office and sought to obtain copyright protection for the work of the CDDB contributors,'' said Bill Growney, Director of Legal Affairs at Roxio, Inc. ``Having built its database by promising the public that the database was to be freely accessible, Gracenote is now attempting to misappropriate and monopolize access to public information, and seeks to impose supracompetitive pricing for that access.''

About Roxio

Roxio, Inc. provides the best selling CD burning software in the world empowering people to create, manage and move digital media. Roxio's suite of digital media products features Easy CD Creator (for Windows) and Toast (for Macintosh). Roxio also makes GoBack, the #1 selling system recovery software that enables PC users to ``go back'' in time to instantly recover from system crashes, virus attacks, failed software installations and data loss. Roxio distributes its products globally through strategic partnerships with major PC and drive manufacturers, national retail chains and Internet partnerships. Roxio's products are also available at its website, http://www.roxio.com . Headquartered in Milpitas, California, Roxio also maintains offices in Colorado, Minnesota, Germany, and Japan. Roxio currently employs more than 250 people worldwide. Roxio is a member of the S&P SmallCap 600.

NOTE: Roxio, the Roxio logotype, the Roxio tagline, and Toast are trademarks of Roxio, Inc., which may be registered in some jurisdictions. Easy CD Creator and GoBack are registered trademarks of Roxio, Inc. or its subsidiaries. All other trademarks used are owned by their respective owners.

SOURCE: Roxio, Inc.