Digimarc Modernizes New Mexico Driver License System

Business Wire,  April 25, 2008  

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New Mexico Becomes the Latest State to Migrate to the Highly Secure, Industry Leading Digimarc Driver License Solution

BEAVERTON, Ore. -- Digimarc Corporation (NASDAQ: DMRC) today announced that New Mexico's Motor Vehicle Division (MVD) has begun issuing licenses using a new, highly secure system from Digimarc, following a line of issuance systems upgrades in a number of states, including Indiana and Oregon.

Digimarc replaced the State's existing self issuing system with a state-of-the-art, secure driver license issuance system, designed to ensure that only one valid license is issued to one legitimate applicant, helping fight driver license fraud and identity theft. The Digimarc solution includes centralized driver license production from a secure facility and multiple applicant screening steps to confirm identity.

"It is an exciting day for New Mexico as we introduce a state-of-the-art system for issuing secure driver licenses and State IDs," said Ken Ortiz, director, Motor Vehicle Division. "We expect the new secure production process and increased fraud detection to greatly enhance transportation safety and protection of the identities of our citizens."

"We are delighted to have earned the privilege of serving the driver license needs of New Mexico, joining many other U.S. jurisdiction who rely upon Digimarc for their driver license issuance systems," said Bob Eckel, president, ID systems, Digimarc. "Digimarc is pleased to be working closely with New Mexico to introduce a new world-class driver license solution that will serve the State's citizens with innovative applicant verification solutions and secure central production of a market leading secure credential design."

New Mexico's market leading system includes the following Digimarc solutions:

* Secure, centralized driver license production - The New Mexico driver license is being produced in one of Digimarc's highly secure factories. New Mexico drivers who apply for a new or renewal license now receive an interim driver license when they leave the office, and their final driver license in the mail, only after the applicant's identity has been positively validated.

* Biometric Identification - MVD staff use facial recognition technology to compare a driver license applicant's photo against all other photos of registered drivers in the MVD database to determine whether the applicant is attempting to obtain a duplicate license under a false identity.

* Advanced driver license document design with market-leading security features - the newly designed New Mexico driver license incorporates a number of new layers of security, including Digimarc IDMarc digital watermarks for machine-readable, cross-jurisdictional driver license authentication.

About Digimarc

Digimarc Corporation (NASDAQ: DMRC), based in Beaverton, Oregon, is a leading supplier of secure identity and media management solutions. Digimarc provides products and services that enable the production of more than 60 million personal identification documents, including two-thirds of U.S. driver licenses and IDs for more than 25 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 more than 360 issued U.S. patents with more than 7,500 claims, and more than 500 pending U.S. and foreign 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; and the Washington DC area; and international offices in London and Mexico. Please go to www.digimarc.com for more company information.

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. Such forward-looking statements include statements containing the words "believes," "expects," "estimates," "anticipates," "will" or words of similar import or statements of management's opinion. These statements 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. More detailed information about risk factors that may affect actual results is set forth in filings by Digimarc with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Forms 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K, including but not limited to those described in the Company's Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2007 in Part II, Item 7 thereof ("Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations") under the captions "Liquidity and Capital Resources" and "Factors Affecting Forward Looking Statements" and in Part II, Item 9A thereof ("Controls and Procedures"). Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which reflect management's opinions only as of the date of this release. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to revise or publicly release the results of any revision to these forward-looking statements.

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