NVMI Nova Ltd

REHOVOTH, Israel, April 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Nova Measuring Instruments Ltd. (NASDAQ:NVMI), provider of leading edge stand-alone metrology and the market leader of integrated metrology solutions to the semiconductor process control market, today announced that it has reached a settlement of all three patent suits between Nova and Nanometrics Incorporated. During a settlement conference on April 11, 2007, Nanometrics and Nova agreed to dismiss, without prejudice, all pending patent litigation between the two parties, and have further agreed not to file patent suits against the other for a period of one year. The settlement, upon court approval, will terminate the three lawsuits pending in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The patent litigation between Nanometrics and Nova Measuring began in March of 2005, when Nova initiated a suit claiming Nanometrics infringed on certain integrated metrology products. This case was scheduled to begin trial on May 29th of this year. A second suit, initiated by Nanometrics in April of 2006, related to claims of infringement by Nova of certain UV calibration technology owned by Nanometrics and is currently on Stay. The third suit, initiated by Nanometrics in October of 2006, related to certain scatterometry optical critical dimension technology owned by Nanometrics and was moving towards trial. "We view this as a positive outcome," commented Gabi Seligsohn, President and CEO of Nova. "This settlement constitutes an important step toward achieving one of our important goals - moving to profitability. In addition to eliminating litigation-related expenses, it also removes a major distraction for the management team. While we were confident in our position regarding these pending suits, we prefer to focus on enhancing shareholder value through business growth in the marketplace rather than the courtroom." About Nova Nova Measuring Instruments Ltd. develops, produces and markets advanced integrated and stand alone metrology solutions for the semiconductor manufacturing industry. Nova is traded on the NASDAQ & TASE under the symbol NVMI. The Company's website is http://www.nova.co.il/. This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 relating to future events or our future performance, such as statements regarding expected profitability. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied in those forward-looking statements. These risks and other factors include but are not limited to: our dependency on a single integrated process control product line; the highly cyclical nature of the markets we target; our inability to reduce spending during a slowdown in the semiconductor industry; our ability to respond effectively on a timely basis to rapid technological changes; risks associated with our dependence on a single manufacturing facility; our ability to expand our manufacturing capacity or marketing efforts to support our future growth; our dependency on a small number of large customers and small number of suppliers; risks related to our intellectual property; changes in customer demands for our products; new product offerings from our competitors; changes in or an inability to execute our business strategy; unanticipated manufacturing or supply problems; changes in tax requirements; changes in customer demand for our products and risks related to our operations in Israel. We cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. The matters discussed in this press release also involve risks and uncertainties summarized under the heading ``Risk Factors' in Nova's Annual Report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2005 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on June 29, 2006. These factors are updated from time to time through the filing of reports and registration statements with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Nova Measuring Instruments Ltd. does not assume any obligation to update the forward-looking information contained in this press release. Company Contact: Investor relations Contacts: Dror David, Chief Financial Officer Ehud Helft / Kenny Green Nova Measuring Instruments Ltd. GK International Investor Relations Tel: +972-8-938-7505 Tel: +1-866-704-6710 E-mail: E-mail : http://www.nova.co.il/ DATASOURCE: Nova Measuring Instruments Ltd CONTACT: Company Contact: Dror David, Chief Financial Officer, Nova Measuring Instruments Ltd., Tel: +972-8-938-7505, E-mail: , Investor relations Contacts: Ehud Helft / Kenny Green, GK International Investor Relations, Tel: +1-866-704-6710, E-mail :

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