Digimarc Appoints Director of Federal Business Development; Manfred Hirt to Lead Business Development and Sales Efforts for Digimarc Federal Government Programs Group

Business Wire, Jan 14, 2002

Business Editors

TUALATIN, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 14, 2002

Digimarc Corporation (Nasdaq:DMRC), the world leader in digital watermarking solutions, announced today the continued expansion of its government programs efforts with the hiring of Manfred Hirt as director of federal business development.

In this new position, Hirt is responsible for leading Digimarc's business development and sales activities in the federal government sector.

Hirt has more than 20 years experience selling technology solutions to the federal government, including helping to secure multi-million dollar contracts with the Department of Defense, as well as intelligence agencies and civilian agencies of the federal government. He joins Digimarc from Netegrity, a security software company in Reston, VA., and will be based in Digimarc's new Washington, DC-area office.

"Manfred Hirt brings a stellar record of high-value sales and security-related contracts within many of the defense, intelligence and other government agencies that Digimarc is focusing on," said J. Scott Carr, vice president and general manager of Digimarc Government Programs. "We believe his leadership and success in identifying and closing government business will help us provide federal agencies with digital watermarking solutions that significantly enhance the security of national imagery, badging, document and access and control systems."

About Digimarc

Digimarc Corp. (Nasdaq:DMRC), based in Tualatin, Ore., is the world leader in digital watermarking solutions. Digimarc's patented digital watermarking technology is used in a range of solutions for brand protection, brand management and security applications. The technology allows digital data to be embedded imperceptibly in traditional and digital media content including photographic or artistic images, movies, music, packaging, printed materials, promotional items, value documents, tickets and holograms, among others. The company continues to build a pervasive new communications platform by developing an increasing array of diverse product offerings. These offerings benefit a broad range of consumers, corporations and government institutions, enhancing the protection of copyrights, the security of value documents and the management of media and fostering integrated marketing and e-commerce for many goods and services. Digimarc's leading customers include creative professionals, major media companies and central banks.

Digimarc ID Systems, based in Bedford, Mass., is the leading producer of drivers licenses in the U.S., providing systems and services to 37 states. Internationally, Digimarc ID Systems produces identification documents for governments in various countries around the world.

Digimarc has an extensive intellectual property portfolio, with 49 issued U.S. patents with 883 claims, and 304 pending applications for U.S. patents, in digital watermarking and related technologies. Digimarc's vision is to have its watermarking technology become a standard feature of all media content. Please go to www.digimarc.com for more company information.

Securities Safe Harbor

This press release contains forward-looking statements that are made pursuant to the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements are subject to certain assumptions, risks and uncertainties. Although Digimarc believes that the expectations reflected in its forward-looking statements, including statements regarding the growth of Digimarc's government programs group, are reasonable, actual results could differ materially from those expectations or from historical results. Important factors that could cause such differences include without limitation changes in customer needs and expectations, and governmental actions and other factors detailed in Digimarc's Annual Report on Form 10-K for 2000 and its most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, each as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Digimarc is not obligated to revise or update any forward-looking statements in order to reflect events or circumstances that may arise after the date of this release.