ASSIA Wins Judgment Against British Telecom in UK Court of Appeal

REDWOOD CITY, CA--(Marketwired - Nov 11, 2014) - ASSIA, Inc., a leading solutions company for broadband service providers, announced that today the UK Court of Appeal in London affirmed a 2013 High Court judgment in favor of ASSIA on one important broadband management patent and determined that British Telecom infringes a second, more fundamental patent covering dynamic spectrum management techniques.

The Court of Appeal judgment holds that BT infringes two key ASSIA patents in its management of the rapidly growing "Next Generation Architecture" UK superfast broadband network. According to a recent BT announcement, 203,000 new customers subscribed to the operator's superfast broadband offering between July and September 2014, bringing the total number of BT superfast broadband customers to 3.3 million as of September 30.

ASSIA's patents at issue in the trial describe sophisticated techniques for rapidly optimizing millions of broadband connections without human intervention. These techniques are incorporated into ASSIA's award-winning DSL Expresse® software, which is licensed to operators in Europe, North America, South America, Asia, and Africa. In addition, several broadband service providers, principally in Europe, independently have developed dynamic spectrum management systems that incorporate the technologies protected by the two ASSIA patents.

"Today's ruling affirms ASSIA's role as an innovator in the field of broadband performance optimization," said ASSIA General Counsel Noah Mesel. "Two dozen major operators around the world license our products because they recognize the significant value ASSIA's software uniquely adds to their businesses. As BT continues to grow the part of their business that infringes ASSIA's patents, it is time for them to join companies such as AT&T, Verizon, Sky, and Bouygues, and license our software; otherwise BT should pay for infringing our patented technology."

The two patents in the case, EP (UK) 1,869,790 and EP (UK) 2,259,495, describe inventions fundamental to dynamic monitoring and automatic optimization of DSL networks. ASSIA's patented technologies improve service speeds and consumer satisfaction on approximately 70 million broadband connections on five continents. That technology, incorporated into ASSIA DSL Expresse software, enables DSL service providers to achieve up to 60 percent reduction in calls, dispatches and churn, up to 40 percent increase in average broadband speeds, and up to $500,000 per year in energy cost savings.

A hearing is set for 13 November to determine whether BT continues to infringe the '790 patent, based upon an alleged work-around system implemented after the trial court found in December 2013 that their original system infringes that patent.

ASSIA is represented in this case by its solicitors at Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co LLP, including partners David Barron and Alexandra Brodie, and by barristers Iain Purvis, QC, and Joe Delaney.

About ASSIA, Inc. 
ASSIA, Inc. is a strategic and trusted solutions vendor to broadband service providers worldwide. ASSIA solutions enable providers to grow revenues, increase customer satisfaction, improve operational efficiencies, and deliver new multimedia content to the broadband-enabled home. ASSIA has more than 70 million broadband lines under contract with top-tier service providers worldwide and is backed by strategic investors, including AT&T, Mingly China Growth Fund, SFR Development, Sandalwood Partners, Sofinnova Partners, Stanford University, Swisscom Ventures, T-Ventures, and Telefonica. For more information, visit www.assia-inc.com.

Expresse® is a registered trademark of ASSIA, Inc.

"ASSIA" is an acronym for "Adaptive Spectrum and Signal Alignment," the Company's registered legal name.