Fingerprint Cards signs licensing agreements with Sony Corporation, Japan, and with Clere Electronics, England

Fingerprint Cards signs licensing agreements with Sony Corporation, Japan, and with Clere Electronics, England. Fingerprint Cards AB has sold a non-exclusive licence to Sony Corporation, Tokyo. This concerns the Löfberg patent held by Fingerprint Cards and permits Sony to market and sell its own FIU-710 "Puppy" Fingerprint Identification Unit, a product for logging into a PC. Another non-exclusive licence has been sold to Clere Electronics Limited, Newbury, UK. This licence permits Clere Electronics to re-sell Fingerprint Cards' components from its own stock in the United Kingdom. Sony's identification product is a stand-alone unit connected to a PC through its USB port. This, not the PC's processor, enrols, stores and matches fingerprint patterns for authenticating log-ins; the product has been on the market for about one year. Clere Electronics (CE) will act as the UK distributor for Fingerprint Cards and hold its own stock of components. Through its understanding of fingerprint techology, CE can help smaller and middle-sized companies to build applications and supply them with components for relatively low volumes of production. Customers planning larger volumes will be referred, after a start-up phase, to Fingerprint Cards, so that lower component prices can favour larger production volumes. For further details, please contact: Lennart Carlson, President of Fingerprint Cards AB, or Chief Financial Officer Bengt Alberts on tel. +46 31 60 78 20. Fingerprint Cards AB (publ) is listed on the O-list (FING B) of Stockholm Stock Exchange. The Company has developed a complete finger verification system that can be implemented in small units. This technology comprises two microchips and software developed in house, which are completely independent of a PC for storage, scanning and matching of finger patterns. Being extremely compact, low in its energy needs, and inexpensive to produce, the technique can be integrated into smart cards and mobile telephones, for example, where such qualities are of the essence. www.fingerprints.com Sony Corporation is a leading developer of communication technologies in voice and image processing; and of products in consumer and professional information technologies. Its product range includes radio, video, TV, laptops, electronic equipment. Engaged in music, film, television, electronic games and on-line selling, Sony is a world-leader in entertainment. Its annual turnover is about ¥7,600bn; it has about 168,000 employees. www.sony.com Clere Electronics Limited is a privately held company in the electronics business; its main premises are in Newbury, a town west of London. Founded 25 years ago, it is now active throughout the UK and has an annual turnover of about £4m. CE is the UK distributor for Nordic VLSI ASA, Trondheim, Norway, the chip-development partner of Fingerprint Cards. www.clere.com ------------------------------------------------------------ This information was brought to you by Waymaker http://www.waymaker.net The following files are available for download: http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2002/05/15/20020515BIT00800/wkr0001.doc http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2002/05/15/20020515BIT00800/wkr0002.pdf