Asylum Research Eliminates Half of Veeco Patent Claims

SANTA BARBARA, Calif.--(Business Wire)--Asylum Research, a premier manufacturer of atomic force
microscopes, announced that the federal court in Los Angeles dismissed
two of the five Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) patents from the
infringement lawsuit commenced by Veeco in September 2003 and that the
judge's summary judgment order (http://www.AsylumResearch.com/sj.pdf)
cast a large shadow over their remaining patents. This action
eliminates 6 of 13 patent claims that Veeco brought against Asylum
while all Asylum claims against Veeco remain. The court's ruling was
issued in March of this year, but had remained under seal until
recently when the court lifted the seal at Asylum's request. At the
same time the court set a March 2008 date for trial on the remaining
issues of the suit.

"The standards for ruling on summary judgment are incredibly high,
yet the judge dismissed nearly half of Veeco's claims," said Dick
Clark, co-founder and general counsel of Asylum Research. "We are
eager to go to trial this March, as ordered by the court. We will
prove we do not infringe the few remaining Veeco claims and that they
do infringe the claims of our patent. We will also prove, following
the lead of the court's ruling, that each of the remaining Veeco
patents is invalid for improper inventorship, among other reasons."

Co-founder and CEO of Asylum Research Jason Cleveland commented,
"Four years ago Veeco chose to pursue litigation rather than
innovation. Their obvious hope was to financially starve a young
competitor. That strategy has backfired and they now find themselves
with a damaged portfolio and facing a possible infringement ruling for
using our technology - technology that enables much faster, lower
noise AFMs that will be required for Veeco to be competitive in the
future. While we are obviously very happy with this victory, we look
forward to finishing the job at trial."

An electronic version of the judge's opinion in the case, Veeco
Instruments Inc., et al v. Asylum Research Corporation, CV 03-6682 SVW
(USDC Central District California) is available online at
www.AsylumResearch.com/sj.pdf

About Asylum Research

Asylum Research manufactures advanced scientific instrumentation,
including AFMs/SPMs, for nanoscale science and technology. An AFM/SPM
is used for visualizing surfaces and measuring surface properties at
the nanometer level. For additional information, please contact Terry
Mehr, Director of Marketing, Asylum Research, 6310 Hollister Ave.,
Santa Barbara, CA 93117, 805-696-6466, terry@AsylumResearch.com, or
see the web site at www.AsylumResearch.com.

Asylum Research
Terry Mehr, Director of Marketing, 805-696-6466
terry@AsylumResearch.com

Copyright Business Wire 2007