Press Releases

NOVELLUS SYSTEMS’ VICTORY IN SEMITOOL PATENT INFRINGEMENT CASE IS AFFIRMED BY FEDERAL APPEALS COURT SAN JOSE, Calif., Aug. 7, 2002-Novellus Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:NVLS), the productivity and innovation leader in advanced deposition and surface preparation technology for the global semiconductor industry, today announced that the company has won another decision in the patent infringement lawsuit filed by Semitool, Inc. (Nasdaq:SMTL) on Aug. 10, 1998, alleging that Novellus' SABRE^® and SABRE xT copper deposition systems infringed upon Semitool's U.S. patents 5,222,310 and 5,337,708. In a decision dated July 23, 2002, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed the Mar. 17, 2000, decision of U.S. District Judge D. Lowell Jensen, who had ruled that Novellus Systems had not violated the Semitool patents.

"Once again, the courts have upheld our original claim-that the Semitool suit has no merit or bearing on our copper Electrofill^TM tools," said Novellus Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Richard S. Hill. "Our original SABRE system contained many Novellus innovations and was the first system in our industry to provide our customers with the copper Electrofill technology required to build copper interconnects. We have maintained throughout this lawsuit that the Semitool case was frivolous. The courts have, once again, validated our position in this case."

About Novellus Systems:

Novellus Systems, Inc., an S&P 500 company, manufactures, markets and services advanced deposition and surface preparation equipment for today's advanced integrated circuits. The company's products are designed for high-volume production of advanced, leading-edge semiconductor devices at the lowest possible cost. Headquartered in San Jose, Calif., with subsidiaries throughout the United States as well as in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Ireland, Israel, Italy, India, China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan, Novellus is a publicly traded company on the Nasdaq stock exchange (Nasdaq:NVLS) and a component of the Nasdaq-100 Indexâ. Additional information about the company is available on Novellus' home page at www.novellus.com

SABRE is a registered trademark and Electrofill is a trademark of Novellus Systems, Inc.