Zero-Knowledge Systems Inc., on Behalf of Synomos Inc., Files Motion to Institute Proceedings Against IBM

Business Wire, June 9, 2004

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

MONTREAL--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 9, 2004

Synomos Inc., through its parent company Zero-Knowledge Systems (ZKS), today filed a Motion to Institute Proceedings against International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) in the Superior Court of Quebec, District of Montreal. The motion outlines copyright infringement under the Canadian Copyright Act and a violation of the Civil Code of Quebec on the part of IBM in relation to joint work completed by the companies.

The Motion details the joint work done by ZKS' Enterprise Privacy Unit (now known as Synomos Inc.) and IBM from June 2001 to February 2002 towards the creation of an XML-based language standard for writing enterprise privacy policies.

This work was based on the Privacy Rights Markup Language (PRML) that ZKS had previously created and then shared with IBM under a Confidential Disclosure Agreement. The joint work of both parties on PRML led to the creation of the Enterprise Privacy Markup Language 1.0 Specification on February 4, 2002. As a result, ZKS and IBM are co-owners of the copyrights to this work.

This specification is the basis upon which IBM created its Enterprise Privacy Authorization Language, which it then published, publicized, submitted, and licensed to the World Wide Web Consortium without acknowledging ZKS' contribution, and without the license, authority or consent of ZKS as required by law.

More information on the action is at: http://www.synomos.com/html/EPML/

About Synomos Inc.

Synomos provides data governance solutions that enable businesses to achieve cost-effective regulatory compliance, manage data policies, and assure the value of enterprise data assets. Synomos, formerly known as the Enterprise Privacy Unit of Zero-Knowledge Systems, was spun out into a wholly owned subsidiary of ZKS in June 2004. The company's flagship product is the Align Data Governance Manager suite, a comprehensive data governance solution that enables businesses to manage, apply and enforce data policies within the IT environment. Synomos has delivered on mandates for Fortune 500 companies, financial services organizations and global technology leaders. The company is headquartered in Montreal, Canada with offices in the Eastern United States.

More information is available at http://www.synomos.com.