Symantec Awarded More Than US$10 Million in CD Micro Counterfeit

Symantec Awarded More Than US$10 Million in CD Micro Counterfeit Software Case

CUPERTINO --Calif. - October 7, 2003 -- Symantec, the world leader in Internet security, today announced that the federal District Court in Oregon has awarded it more than US$10 million in damages for infringement of Symantec's trademarks and copyrights by CD Micro, Inc. and its chief executive officer, Vincent Webb. The award follows a summary judgement handed down in July 2003 that found CD Micro guilty of the same charges.

The award was based on CD Micro's profits of more than US$3 million made from the sale of the counterfeit software, which was designated by the judge as the initial amount of damages. Under federal trademark law, the court tripled the damages to the final amount of US$10 million after finding that the infringement was wilful."

The amount of this award underscores how heavy the penalties are for trafficking pirated and counterfeit software," said William Plante, director for Symantec Worldwide Security and Brand Protection Task Force. "Symantec takes software piracy very seriously and is extremely aggressive through its Brand Protection Task Force in investigating and pursuing charges against anyone that engages in these types of illegal activities."

Symantec initiated legal proceedings against CD Micro in April 2002 after receiving spammed email from CD Micro offering Symantec products at grossly reduced prices under the Web site heading of Free-IRewards.com. Upon further investigation of the software being offered, Symantec confirmed that the software was counterfeit. CD Micro was unresponsive to Symantec's inquiries into the matter, resulting in legal action taken by Symantec to halt the distribution of the counterfeit software.

In July 2003, the case culminated in a ruling by Judge Garr M. King of the United States District Court for the District of Oregon that awarded summary judgment in favour of Symantec against CD Micro for violating copyright and trademark laws by selling counterfeit software. The court also found CEO Webb personally liable for copyright infringement as part of the judgment and extended the ruling following a second summary judgment hearing in September to include violations by Webb of trademark protection laws.

About Symantec
Symantec (NASDAQ: SYMC), the world leader in Internet security technology, provides a broad range of content and network security software and appliance solutions to individuals, enterprises and service providers. The company is a leading provider of client, gateway and server security solutions for virus protection, firewall and virtual private network, vulnerability management, intrusion detection, Internet content and e-mail filtering, remote management technologies and security services to enterprises and service providers around the world. Symantec's Norton brand of consumer security products is a leader in worldwide retail sales and industry awards. Headquartered in Cupertino, Calif., Symantec has worldwide operations in 36 countries. For more information, please visit www.symantec.com.au

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