OTTAWA, ON, September 7, 2001—In a ruling today, the San Francisco district court ordered that the Business Objects patent infringement case brought against Cognos^® (Nasdaq:COGN; TSE:CSN) proceed to trial. The decision follows a motion brought by Cognos for summary judgment.

The lawsuit filed by Business Objects on May 5, 2000 alleges that Cognos software infringes its United States Patent number 5,555,403 entitled "Relational Database Access System Using Semantically Dynamic Objects."

"It is rare for a patent case to be dismissed by summary judgment and we respect the Court's wish to receive more detail," said Ron Zambonini, Cognos president and chief executive officer. "This lawsuit is without merit. The Business Objects patent is invalid and unenforceable against Cognos. We look forward to proving our case at trial."

This press release contains forward-looking statements relating to, among other things, steps to be taken and our expectation with regard to the outcome of this litigation. These forward-looking statements are made under the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are neither promises nor guarantees, but involve risks and uncertainties inherent in the litigation process, which may cause future results to turn out differently from those expected. Those risks and uncertainties are detailed in the Company's SEC filings from time to time, including the most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K.