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CNET Channel Brings Patent Infringement Suit Against Etilize SAN FRANCISCO, CA December, 2006 CNET Channel, a property of CNET Networks, Inc. (www.cnetnetworks.com), announced today that it filed and is pursuing a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California against Rolling Hills Estates, CA.-based Etilize for patent infringement. The complaint alleges that Etilize's catalog services, product information management solutions and product content subscription services infringe CNET Networks' U.S. Patent Nos. 6,714,933 entitled "Content Aggregation Method and Apparatus for On-Line Purchasing System" and 7,082,426 entitled "Content Aggregation Method and Apparatus for On-Line Product Catalogue". "CNET Networks was an early pioneer in a broad range of product catalog technologies, and has supported both online catalogs and traditional sales processes with standardized product content, applications and services for more than 2,100 companies in 35 markets worldwide," said Greg Mason, Senior Vice President of CNET Networks and President of CNET Channel. "We believe that Etilize's method of collecting product content and its associated catalog services infringe CNET patents on technologies that we've invested millions of dollars in development over the last 7 years." CNET Networks' lawsuit seeks monetary damages as well as an injunction to prevent Etilize from further making, using, selling or offering the infringing processes and products. "While we had hoped to avoid litigation, our attempts to resolve this infringement issue through negotiations with Etilize were unsuccessful. We have a responsibility to our shareholders, customers and employees to protect our intellectual property assets and are confident that the court will uphold our patent rights." adds Mason. Corporate resellers, retailers, VARs, distributors and manufacturers of technology products are transitioning to multi-channel strategies that enable customers to shop across several channels. When sales take place outside of a brick-n-mortar environment, these businesses are dependent on a structured catalog of standardized product content. Consumers' reliance on this content to easily find, research and compare multiple products online is driving unprecedented growth of e-commerce sales. CNET Networks is at the vanguard of this transition, with a strong intellectual property portfolio that includes a number of patents and pending patent applications in the U.S. and world wide on a variety of product catalog technologies.
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