Reference is made to JFT’s announcements on 21 April 2015, 27 June 2014 and 7 August 2014 in relation to a Complaint for Patent Infringement filed by JTI in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California (“the Court”) against the Defendant for the Infringement of United States Patent No. 7,059,866 entitled "Integrated Circuit Test Contact to Test Apparatus" ("866 Patent").

The Board wishes to inform that in relation to the Company’s application for summary judgements on a finding of non-infringement of USA Patent No 7,059,866, the Court ordered summary judgement on its finding that there is no literal infringement of the said patent. The Court also made a finding and ordered summary judgement against JTI’s claim for pre-suit damages based on JTI's failure to mark its products with the ‘866 Patent number or to provide sufficient notice of infringement of the '866 Patent. However, the Court refused to order summary judgement on the issue of infringement under the doctrine of equivalents and on inducement, and it also deferred its ruling on willfulness. The Court ordered that these issues go to trial. This does not mean that the Court ruled against the Company on these issues. Rather, it means that the Court determined that there are facts material to these issues that are genuinely disputed and as such these issues should be decided by the jury. The trial date is set on 19 September 2016.

In relation to JTI’s application for summary judgement against the Company’s counterclaims in the United States, the Court ordered summary judgement against the Company’s defamation claims and related counterclaims in the United States. Costs assessment is not yet determined and our US attorneys will be advising shortly on steps moving forward on these counterclaims.

This announcement is dated 12 August 2016.