Tokyo,17th October, 2006 --- NEC Corporation (NEC) today announced that it initiated patent infringement litigation against Italian digital microwave radio (DMR) manufacturer SIAE Microelettronica S.p.A. (SIAE) in the Italian District Court of Milan on October 16, 2006. NEC alleges that DMR equipment manufactured and sold by SIAE infringes European patents owned by it.

NEC sought to negotiate a settlement with SIAE in respect to its patents. However, SIAE turned down reasonable requests to compensate NEC, and has since continued to manufacture and sell DMR equipment. NEC determined that litigation was unavoidable in order to protect its valuable intellectual property rights and initiated patent infringement litigation against SIAE in the German District Court of Munich I half a year ago. NEC has now also initiated patent infringement litigation in Milan, where SIAE has its headquarters.

The infringement action in Germany concerns three European patents covering fundamental DMR techniques such as multi-level quadrature amplitude modulation (M-QAM), synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH) radio and cross-polar interference cancellation (XPIC). The infringement action in Italy concerns two of these patents, M-QAM and XPIC.

“As a result of its research and development efforts over the past thirty years, NEC currently possesses a very strong DMR patent portfolio worldwide,” said Tsutomu Nakamura, Senior Vice President & Member of the Board. "We value our intellectual property as an extremely important company asset.
 Last year NEC settled U.S. and Canadian litigations with an American company under terms and conditions that recognize the value of NEC’s DMR patents and we will continue to take a firm position in enforcing our rights if they are infringed.”   

In the 1960s, NEC began research and development in the area of DMR and produced the world’s first commercial equipment in 1969.  Since then, NEC has developed a broad range of DMR systems and techniques as a leading global manufacturer, thus contributing to the establishment of wireless communication networks worldwide.  NEC's DMR equipment, such as Point-to-Point Wireless Access System “PASOLINK”, is shipped to over 110 countries and is often recognized for its high performance and reliability in the global market.

About NEC Corporation
NEC Corporation (NASDAQ: NIPNY) is one of the world's leading providers of Internet, broadband network and enterprise business solutions dedicated to meeting the specialized needs of its diverse and global base of customers. NEC delivers tailored solutions in the key fields of computer, networking and electron devices, by integrating its technical strengths in IT and Networks, and by providing advanced semiconductor solutions through
NEC Electronics Corporation. The NEC Group employs more than 150,000 people worldwide and had net sales of approximately 4,825 billion yen (approx. $41.2 billion) in the fiscal year ended March 2006. For additional information, please visit the NEC home page at: http://www.nec.com/