Mercury Cable Provides Update on CPTC Patent Litigation

Mercury Cable & Energy, Inc. (“Mercury Cable”), the leading developer of High Voltage Composite Reinforced Conductors (“HVCRC”) for electrical transmission lines, provides the following update regarding the patent litigation between Mercury Cable and CTC Cable Corporation (OTCBB:CPTCQ.OB) (“CPTC”). On May 23rd, Mercury Cable’s motion to disqualify CPTC’s counsel Knobbe Martens will be heard by Judge Carter in U.S. District Court. Both parties have agreed to a 45-day stay of the litigation pending the outcome of the motion.

Once the stay is lifted, the District Court will hear Mercury Cable's motion for summary judgment which asks the Court to rule that each of the asserted claims of the CPTC patents in suit are invalid as anticipated and obvious in light of publicly available prior art that predates the earliest priority dates of the CPTC patents in suit by several years. In its filing, counsel for Mercury Cable contends that there is nothing novel in the asserted claims, as each and every element of the asserted claims is disclosed and taught by a single reference published for the Electric Power Research Institute (“EPRI”) approximately seven years before the priority date of the CPTC patents in suit. Further, combining the EPRI reference with any one or more of several other prior art references also renders the asserted claims of the patents invalid for obviousness. Court filings may be viewed at: http://www.pacer.gov/

On December 23, 2010, Mercury Cable filed a Request for Ex Parte Reexamination of the Composite Technology Corporation U.S. Patent No. 7,179,522 for ACCC bare overhead transmission conductor pursuant to 37 C.F.R. §1.510 with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”). On February 2, 2011, the USPTO issued an Order Granting Request For Ex Parte Reexamination which included the following statement, “It is agreed that EPRI-II in combination with the CEA [Canadian Electricity Association] raises a substantial new question of patentability with respect to claims 1-20 of the '522 patent.” For more information visit the USPTO public pair website at http://portal.uspto.gov/external/portal/pair and enter the application number 90,011,402 for details on the 7,179,522 patent.

In addition to the reexamination of the CPTC ‘522 patent, according to USPTO documents a reexamination request has recently been filed which challenges the patentability of each of the 72 claims of CPTC’s 7,211,319 patent.

Mercury Cable & Energy is a privately-held developer of High Voltage Composite Reinforced Conductors (HVCRC), Smart Conductors for the Smart Grid. The patented HVCRC Smart Conductor is superior to existing conductors in a number of key performance areas including:

• Up to double the current carrying capacity of ACSR
• Substantially reduces high‐temperature sag
• Requires fewer structures for new line construction
• Increases capacity of existing rights-of-way and structures through retrofitting
• Eliminates bi-metallic corrosion
• Significantly reduces line losses compared to same‐diameter conventional and composite conductors at equal operating temperatures