ROMANIAN COURT RENDERS FAVORABLE RULING FOR VRINGO
ZTE Romania's Latest Challenges To Overturn Romanian Preliminary Injunction Fail
NEW YORK - June 10, 2015 - Vringo, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRNG), a company engaged in the innovation, development and monetization of intellectual property, today announced that the Bucharest Court of Appeal in Romania has denied ZTE Romania's latest attempt to overturn the preliminary injunction, granted to Vringo Infrastructure, Inc.
Since June 30, 2014, the injunction has restrained ZTE Romania, among others, from commercializing any 4G/LTE mobile phone or infrastructure equipment manufactured by ZTE Corporation which incorporates 4G/LTE technology. ZTE Romania has subsequently attempted to have the preliminary injunction overturned or suspended five times, in three separate Romanian Courts. Despite ZTE Romania's repeated attempts to litigate the same issue in different venues, each court, in each instance, has rejected ZTE Romania's challenge:
- An appeal of the preliminary injunction, denied by the Bucharest Court of Appeal on January 8, 2015;
- An attempt to force Vringo to pay a €40 million bond (an amount which ZTE Romania claimed was a more accurate reflection of the damages that ZTE claimed to be suffering in Romania), denied by the Bucharest Court of Appeal on February 4, 2015;
- An attempt to block Vringo from continuing to enforce the preliminary injunction by asking a United States District Court to enjoin Vringo from enforcing any injunction against ZTE around the world, denied by the United States District Court for the District of Delaware on February 10, 2015;
- An attempt to suspend the enforcement of the preliminary injunction, denied by the 1st district Court of Bucharest on March 10, 2015;
- An attempted preliminary injunction against Vringo, which would have allowed ZTE Romania to temporarily resume the commercialization of 4G LTE mobile phones and infrastructure equipment in Romania, which would effectively sidestep the preliminary injunction granted against ZTE, denied by the Bucharest Tribunal on May 7, 2015;
- ZTE Romania's latest challenge, arguing that the preliminary injunction should be lifted based on allegedly new evidence, denied by the Bucharest Court of Appeal on June 4, 2015.
"The latest ruling of the Bucharest Court of Appeal is a simple but clear answer to ZTE Romania's numerous yet unsuccessful attempts to lift the preliminary injunction. While in other instances the Romanian Courts found ZTE Romania's motions as ungrounded, the Court declared ZTE Romania's most recent motion as inadmissible, thus sending a strong message about the rule of law and protection of rights conferred by a European patent in Romania" said Dragos M. Vilau, managing partner of Vilau Associates, the law firm representing Vringo in Romania.
"ZTE has lost a significant number of the more than 70 filings it has made against Vringo around the world," said David Cohen, Vringo's Chief Legal and Intellectual Property Officer. "Courts around the world have taken notice of the fact that ZTE has attempted to abuse procedural rules, and have rejected ZTE's attempts to avoid substantive judicial decisions in favor of Vringo," Mr. Cohen continued.
"ZTE continues to value obstructionist tactics over the productive and amicable resolution of its dispute with Vringo," said Andrew Perlman, Vringo's Chief Executive Officer. "Instead of entering into good faith licensing negotiations, ZTE continues to employ vexatious tactics around the world, wasting time and money, and choosing petulance over rationality," Mr. Perlman continued.
About Vringo, Inc.
Vringo, Inc. is engaged in the innovation, development and monetization of intellectual property and mobile technologies. Vringo's intellectual property portfolio consists of over 600 patents and patent applications covering telecom infrastructure, internet search, and mobile technologies. The patents and patent applications have been developed internally, and acquired from third parties. For more information, visit:www.vringo.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release includes forward-looking statements, which may be identified by words such as "believes," "expects," "anticipates," "estimates," "projects," "intends," "should," "seeks," "future," "continue," or the negative of such terms, or other comparable terminology. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements contained herein. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include, but are not limited to: our inability to license and monetize our patents, including the outcome of the litigation against online search firms and other companies; our inability to monetize and recoup our investment with respect to patent assets that we acquire; our inability to develop and introduce new products and/or develop new intellectual property; our inability to protect our intellectual property rights; new legislation, regulations or court rulings related to enforcing patents, that could harm our business and operating results; unexpected trends in the mobile phone and telecom infrastructure industries; our inability to raise additional capital to fund our combined operations and business plan; our inability to maintain the listing of our securities on a major securities exchange; the potential lack of market acceptance of our products; potential competition from other providers and products; our inability to retain key members of our management team; the future success of Infomedia and our ability to receive value from its stock; our ability to continue as a going concern; our liquidity and other risks and uncertainties and other factors discussed from time to time in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including our annual report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on March 16, 2015. Vringo expressly disclaims any obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements contained herein, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.
Contacts:
Investors and Media:
Cliff Weinstein
Executive Vice President
Vringo, Inc.
646-532-6777
cweinstein@vringoinc.com