October 18, 2005 North Kingstown, Rhode Island, USA - ROMER, a Hexagon Metrology company, has successfully obtained reinstatement of a favorable patent claim construction (“Markman”) ruling in its ongoing patent infringement case against FARO Technologies, Inc., Lake Mary, Florida (NASDAQ: FARO). In response to FARO’s recent request that the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California reconsider its November 29, 2004 "Markman" ruling, the Court vacated that original ruling and conducted a supplemental “Markman” hearing on October 3, 2005. As a consequence of that supplemental hearing, the Court has now issued a revised claim construction order that reaffirms and in several respects strengthens its earlier claim construction order. (CimCore Corp., et al. v. Faro Technologies, Inc., Civil Action No. 03-CV-2355 B(WMc)).

The Court has scheduled a hearing on ROMER’s renewed and expanded motion for summary judgment of patent infringement for November 7, 2005. ROMER’s renewed motion will again seek a ruling that FARO's articulated FaroArms® infringe each of claims 1, 2, & 3 of ROMER's U.S. Patent No. 5,829,148 (“the ‘148 patent”). The hearing will also afford ROMER the opportunity to request a ruling on two new aspects of the case. First, ROMER will request that additional FARO products not included in the original motion infringe the ‘148 patent: the FARO Gage™, Gage Plus™, ScanArm, Digital Template, and Control Station. Second, ROMER will seek a ruling that FARO’s recently announced purported “design-around” of the ‘148 patent, which only modifies the products’ computer software, does not avoid infringement of the ‘148 patent. ROMER is now seeking damages and an injunction regarding FARO's manufacture, use, and sale of each of these additional products.

William Gruber, Hexagon Metrology North America's president, stated that "We are pleased that the Court has reaffirmed and strengthened its earlier ‘Markman’ ruling. The new hearing has given us the opportunity to expand the scope of the case to nearly all of FARO’s product line, as well as FARO’s supposed software ‘design-around’ of our ‘148 patent, which was hurriedly announced in the wake of the first summary judgment ruling. Since the settlement negotiations we conducted last week with FARO were unsuccessful, we are prepared to take this case all the way to the scheduled jury trial in January 2006. We remain confident that ROMER will obtain a favorable ruling and recover substantial damages as a result of FARO's ongoing infringement of our patented technology.”