SOMERSET, N.J. -- EMCORE Corporation (NASDAQ:EMKR) , a leading provider of compound semiconductor-based components and subsystems for the broadband, fiber optic, satellite, and solar power markets, announced today it filed papers in the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania seeking to extend the scope of its patent infringement action against Optium Corporation (NASDAQ:OPTM) to include one additional patent and an additional product line.

EMCORE asserts that Optium is infringing three of EMCORE's licensed patents: United States Patent No. 6,282,003 ("the '003 patent") entitled "Method and apparatus for optimizing SBS performance in an optical communication system using at least two phase modulation tones," United States Patent No. 6,490,071 ("the '071 patent") likewise entitled "Method and apparatus for optimizing SBS performance in an optical communication system using at least two phase modulation tones," and United States Patent No. 6,519,374 ("the '374 patent") entitled "Predistortion arrangement using mixers in nonlinear electro-optical applications." EMCORE believes that Optium's 1550 nm externally modulated transmitters and 1550 nm QAM transmitters infringe the patents.

"EMCORE continues to put considerable resources into developing unique technologies that are key to transmission of video, voice and data, and which support EMCORE's stature in the CATV market," said Dr. Hong Q. Hou, President and COO of EMCORE. "Similarly, we will deploy considerable resources to ensure that our intellectual property is respected. We believe that Optium has infringed on several of our licensed patents and we will aggressively pursue any misuse of our intellectual property by Optium or any other companies and individuals," he said.

Emcore Corp. (Nasdaq: EMKR)