Digimarc Licensed DRM Patent Essential for Open Mobile Alliance 1.0

Digimarc Licensed DRM Patent Essential for Open Mobile Alliance 1.0

    Business Editors/Technology Writers

    AMSTERDAM, Netherlands & BEAVERTON, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 18, 2005--

Digimarc and Philips establish cooperative licensing relationship for
    digital rights management patents

    Royal Philips Electronics (AEX:PHI)(NYSE:PHG) and Digimarc Corporation (Nasdaq:DMRCE) today announced that an independent patent evaluator of MPEG LA has deemed a patent licensed to Philips by Digimarc for digital rights management (DRM) to be essential to the OMA DRM 1.0 specification of the joint patent portfolio of MPEG LA.
    The patent -- U.S. Patent No. 6,807,534 -- is part of the industry pool through Digimarc's exclusive license to Philips, which is a royalty-bearing agreement that grants Philips use of a number of digital rights management (DRM) patents.
    Philips plans to actively offer these patents to industry participants and license them in support of appropriate industry standards initiatives such as the Open Mobile Alliance. Philips also has the right to use the licensed Digimarc DRM patents in Philips' own products and services.
    "This family of patents is based on ground-breaking work in the field of digital rights management and represents a number of very innovative and creative approaches to providing consumers with user-friendly methods to access and use media content while protecting the rights of content owners," said Ruud Peters, CEO of Philips Intellectual Property & Standards. "Philips is pleased to be working with Digimarc on a licensing framework that fosters robust DRM solutions that address key aspects of the distribution challenges of the digital economy."
    "We believe these patents, which cover concepts for sampling content and managing digital rights, are relevant to a number of DRM implementations that are emerging in the market, such as the ability of users to sample music or movies and then acquire rights to use the entertainment content more broadly or for an extended period of time," said Reed Stager, vice president, Corporate Licensing and Marketing, Digimarc. "We are delighted to make these patents available to Philips and MPEG LA and to help support the deployment of DRM systems and standards for the digital distribution of content."
    Digimarc acquired rights to the patents in 1997 through an agreement with Dartmouth College and former Dartmouth Researcher and NetRights Company Founder John Erickson, the original inventor of the work, who is now principal scientist, digital media systems lab, at Hewlett-Packard Laboratories.
    Issued patents from this family of innovation include U.S. Patent No. 5,765,152 and No. 6,807,534. Seven more pending patent applications in the portfolio -- all of which are available to Philips through the licensing agreement with Digimarc -- are pending. The issued patents include claims directed to:

--	Methods to manage electronic audio and video content and secure their distribution
--	Methods to authorize data transfers of digital media by specifying minimum permissible uses of the media, while specifying those that are restricted
--	Methods to maintain bibliographic records of audio and video media
--	Systems to package images and audio and video content so as to allow minimum uses of the content, while restricting others
--	Systems and methods to allow expanded use of media after acceptance of agreed upon licensing terms

    For more information on the OMA 1.0 specification, visit http://www.mpegla.com/news/n_05-01-06_drm.pdf

    About Digimarc

    Digimarc Corporation (Nasdaq:DMRCE), based in Beaverton, Oregon, is a leading supplier of secure media solutions used in a wide range of security, identification and digital media content applications. Digimarc provides products and services that enable production of more than 60 million personal identification documents, including two-thirds of U.S. driver licenses and IDs for more than 20 countries. Digimarc's digital watermarking technology provides a persistent digital identity for various media content and is used to enhance the security of financial documents, identity documents and digital images, and support other media rights management applications.
    Digimarc has an extensive intellectual property portfolio, with 185 issued U.S. patents with more than 4,000 claims, and more than 350 pending patent applications in digital watermarking, personal identification and related technologies.
    The company is headquartered in Beaverton, Oregon, with other U.S. offices in Burlington, Massachusetts; Fort Wayne, Indiana; San Francisco, California; and the Washington DC area; and European offices in London. Please go to www.digimarc.com for more company information.

    About Philips

    Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands (NYSE:PHG)(AEX:PHI) is one of the world's biggest electronics companies and Europe's largest, with sales of EUR 29 billion in 2003. With activities in the three interlocking domains of healthcare, lifestyle and technology and 166,800 employees in more than 60 countries, it has market leadership positions in medical diagnostic imaging and patient monitoring, color television sets, electric shavers, lighting and silicon system solutions. News from Philips is located at www.philips.com/newscenter.

    Securities Safe Harbor

    With the exception of historical information contained in this release, the matters described herein contain certain "forward-looking statements" that are made pursuant to the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements, including statements concerning the relevance of Digimarc patents to various digital rights management implementations, are based on management's current reasonable expectations and are subject to certain assumptions, risks, uncertainties and changes in circumstances. Actual results may vary materially from those expressed or implied from the statements herein or from historical results, due to changes in economic, business, competitive, technological and/or regulatory factors including changes in trends, technology or the adoption of industry standards affecting digital rights management and other related technology applications. More detailed information about these factors is set forth in filings by Digimarc with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the most recent annual report on Form 10-K and the most recent quarterly report on Form 10-Q. Digimarc is not obligated to (and expressly disclaims any obligation to) revise or update any forward-looking statements in order to reflect events or circumstances, whether they arise as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

--30--BRM/se*

CONTACT: Digimarc Public Relations Leslie Constans, 503-469-4620 lconstans@digimarc.com or Revolution PR for Digimarc Mizuha Nakajima, 503-997-6045 mizuha@revolutionpr.com or Philips Intellectual Property & Standards Caroline Kamerbeek, +31 40 27 442 32 caroline.kamerbeek@philips.com

KEYWORD: OREGON NETHERLANDS INTERNATIONAL EUROPE INDUSTRY KEYWORD: HARDWARE SOFTWARE NETWORKING INTERNET E-COMMERCE MARKETING AGREEMENTS SOURCE: Digimarc Corporation

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