SUFFERN, N.Y., Jan. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- IDN Technologies LLC (IDNT) announced today that General Patent Corporation International (GPCI), a premier patent enforcement firm, will manage the licensing and enforcement of its patent portfolio covering the use of internationalized domain names for the Internet, recently acquired from WALID, Inc. IDNT and GPCI are headquartered in Suffern, New York.

IDNT's patented technology allows Internet users to access web pages and use Internet applications with domain names that include non-English and other special characters, which are known as Internationalized Domain Names (IDN). Currently, the Internet Engineering Task Force's RFC 1035 standard only permits domain names to include 37 English characters -- the letters A-Z, the numbers 0-9, and the hyphen/minus sign "-". The restriction on the types of characters permitted in domain names has hampered the proliferation of the Internet in non-English-speaking countries. IDNT's patented technology is expected to satisfy the pent-up demand of non-English speaking Internet users, and also fully complies with the proposed standard for Internationalizing Domain Names in Applications, recently approved by the Internet Engineering Steering Group on October 24, 2002.

"IDN Technologies is exploring a number of alternatives pertaining to the licensing and enforcement of its patents," said Alexander Poltorak, Chairman & CEO of GPCI. "We would like the technology to be widely available to the world's Internet users so as to promote the growth and usage of IDNs," he added. "To that end, IDN Technologies intends to offer the patents for license on attractive terms."

"At the same time, if necessary, GPCI will vigorously enforce the patent rights of IDN Technologies," said Neil Cohen, GPCI's Assistant General Counsel, who is spearheading IDN Technologies' licensing and enforcement campaign. "While we recognize that some in the Internet community believe that IDNT's patents should be donated to the public, we believe that the millions of dollars invested in the development of the technology and the creativity and foresight of the inventor, Dr. Walid Tout, must be recognized and adequately compensated," added Mr. Cohen. For licensing terms, contact Neil Cohen at 845-368-2264, or by e-mail at ncohen@gpci.com.

About IDN Technologies LLC
IDN Technologies LLC, headquartered in Suffern, New York, is a joint venture between WALID, Inc. and IP Holdings LLC, a leading intellectual property incubator also located in Suffern, N.Y. IDN Technologies was formed for the purpose of licensing and enforcing United States Patent No. 6,182,148, a related pending U.S. application, and corresponding foreign patent applications throughout the world. For further information on IDN Technologies, see http://www.idntech.com or contact IDN Technologies LLC, Montebello Park, 75 Montebello Road, Suffern, NY 10901; telephone: (845) 368-2264 or e-mail: info@idntech.com.

About General Patent Corporation International
General Patent Corporation International (GPCI) is a premier patent licensing and enforcement firm headquartered in Suffern, N.Y. GPCI represents inventors and patent holders on a contingency basis. GPCI is an affiliate of General Patent Corporation (GPC), a leading full service intellectual property management firm. GPC provides IP analysis and strategy, IP audit and valuation, IP portfolio mining and management, and technology transfer services to domestic and foreign businesses, universities, research institutions and individual inventors.

For further information on GPCI and GPC, contact General Patent Corporation, Montebello Park, 75 Montebello Road, Suffern, N.Y. 10901-3740; telephone: (845) 368-4000; e-mail: info@gpci.com; or visit http://www.patentclaim.com for GPCI and http://www.generalpatent.com for GPC.

About WALID, Inc.
Headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, WALID, Inc. was established in 1999 to provide a complete solution for registering and resolving multilingual Internet domain names. The WALID technology enables businesses, organizations, and individuals to communicate, conduct global commerce and establish a unique Internet presence in any language.

About IP Holdings LLC
IP Holdings LLC is an intellectual property incubator with a focus on patent commercialization through licensing and enforcement. For further information on IP Holdings, contact IP Holdings LLC, Montebello Park, 75 Montebello Road, Suffern, NY 10901; telephone: (845) 368-4000; or e-mail: info@ip-holdings.com .

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