Magma Makes Van Ginneken Deposition Public; Includes Synopsys Threats

Magma Makes Van Ginneken Deposition Public; Includes Synopsys Threats to Sue van Ginneken for $200 million

    Business Editors/High-Tech Editors

    SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 6, 2005--Magma Design Automation Inc. (Nasdaq:LAVA), a provider of semiconductor design software, announced today it has published the transcript of Dr. Lukas van Ginneken's deposition taken in April by attorneys of Magma and Synopsys Inc., including a threat made by Synopsys attorneys that Synopsys would sue Dr. van Ginneken for $200 million. The deposition is available at www.magma-da.com/lvgdepo.html and includes the entire transcript except portions deemed confidential at the request of IBM.
    "We encourage the public to read Dr. van Ginneken's entire deposition for a full understanding of the circumstances surrounding his declaration," said Rajeev Madhavan, Magma chief executive officer. "Not only does the deposition show the extreme pressure put on him by Synopsys, but it demonstrates the disturbing treatment a large, successful company brought to bear on one of our industry's talented engineers."
    "The public finally has confirmation that the truly unique aspects of the inventions in our patents were created by Magma's own engineers. This testimony by Dr. van Ginneken confirms that what Synopsys claims as its own inventions are matters that were actually in the public domain," said David Stanley, Magma special counsel. "Further, despite the assertions made by Synopsys that it was publishing the entire transcript except what Magma had designated as confidential, in fact Synopsys removed portions that were particularly embarrassing to it. As shown in the full transcript on Magma's site, for example, Synopsys openly threatened Dr. Van Ginneken with suing him for $200 million if he provided certain information in response to a question from Magma's attorneys. Not surprisingly, Dr. Van Ginneken declined to answer the question in the face of this intimidation."
    With regard to Synopsys' statements that Dr. van Ginneken conceived of 39 inventions in the '446 patent and 17 inventions in the '438 patent while employed at Synopsys, Stanley said, "Once again Synopsys has presented half-truths and partial facts to paint a distorted picture of reality." The following points should be considered:

--	In a portion of the supplemental response to interrogatory No. 1 NOT referenced by Synopsys, Magma also asserted that, "The methods described by Claims 17-18 and 31-32 of the '446 Patent and claims 17 and 18 of the '438 Patent were conceived by Lukas van Ginneken JOINTLY WITH PATRICK GROENEVELD" (EMPHASIS ADDED). Because Groeneveld was a Magma employee at the time of this conception, Magma is an owner of the '446 and '438 patents.
--	The supplemental response to request for admission No. 5 stated that the methods described by claims 1-9, 19-26 and 33-54 of the '446 patent were conceived "before Lukas van Ginneken resigned from Synopsys." It does not say those methods were conceived AT Synopsys or solely by van Ginneken.
--	The supplemental response to request for admission No. 9 stated that the methods described by claims 1-16 and 19 of the '438 Patent "were conceived before Lukas van Ginneken resigned from Synopsys." It does not say those methods were conceived AT Synopsys or solely by van Ginneken.
--	The supplemental response to interrogatory No. 1 actually said, "The methods described by Claims 1-9, 19-26 and 33-54 of the '446 Patent and claims 1-16 and 19 of the '438 Patent were conceived by Lukas van Ginneken JOINTLY WITH PRABHAKAR KUDVA" (EMPHASIS ADDED). Because Kudva was an IBM employee at the time of this conception, IBM is an owner of the '446 and '438 patents.

    About Magma

    Magma provides leading software for designing highly complex integrated circuits while maximizing Quality of Results with respect to area, timing and power, and at the same time reducing overall design cycles and costs. Magma provides a complete RTL-to-GDSII design flow that includes prototyping, synthesis, place & route, and signal and power integrity chip design capabilities, capacitance extraction, design For test (DFT), physical verification (DRC/LVS), static and statistical timing analysis and characterization and modeling in a single executable, offering "The Fastest Path from RTL to Silicon"(TM). Magma's software also includes products for advanced logical, physical synthesis and architecture development tools for programmable logic devices (PLDs), FPGAs and Structured ASICs; capacitance extraction; and characterization and modeling. The company's stock trades on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol LAVA. Visit Magma Design Automation on the Web at www.magma-da.com.

    Magma is a registered trademark and "The Fastest Path from RTL to Silicon" is a trademark of Magma Design Automation. All other product and company names are trademarks and registered trademarks of their respective companies.

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CONTACT: Magma Design Automation Inc. Monica Marmie, 408-565-7689 monical@magma-da.com

KEYWORD: CALIFORNIA INDUSTRY KEYWORD: HARDWARE TELECOMMUNICATIONS SOFTWARE NETWORKING EDA SOURCE: Magma Design Automation Inc.

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