Digimarc Brings Digital Watermarking Security to Passports and Travel Documents; New Version of Digimarc IDMarc Now Available to
May 02 2005 - 5:00AM
Business Wire
Digimarc Corporation (Nasdaq:DMRCE) today announced the
availability of a new version of Digimarc(R) IDMarc(TM) with
support for the entire range of International Civil Aviation
Organization (ICAO)-compliant travel documents. Already in use on
millions of issued secure IDs, this newest version of the IDMarc
digital watermarking-based security feature now provides specific
support for securing chip-based ePassports. IDMarc is a covert
digital security feature that can be used to fuse multiple elements
of identity documents into a coherent, secure ID structure.
Millions of digitally watermarked identity documents are in
circulation today. On passports, the feature links together the
printed text, artwork, and portrait with the chip-resident digital
data, including the facial image stored on the chip. This layered,
interlocking approach enhances the overall integrity and security
of travel documents. This release of IDMarc version 3.0 has already
been successfully validated on many of the commonly used travel
document printers, including the Toppan MP300 series digital
passport printer. Gary Christelis, vice president of Global
Enterprise Technologies (GET), world-wide distributor of Toppan
passport printers, stated that "GET is always seeking to offer our
Toppan printer customers new digital technologies that further
enhance the security of Toppan passports, and we are very pleased
that the IDMarc product can be utilized with our printers. The
beauty of the IDMarc product is that it is a highly effective,
latent feature that can be easily introduced into both new and
existing projects with our printers, yet significantly elevates the
integrity of a passport." In a global move to enhance travel
security and border control, ICAO has established a new standard
that adds a contactless chip to travel documents and provides
support for a common biometric. As a result, the United States,
European Union countries, and many other issuers around the globe
are moving to adopt these chip-based passports. The IDMarc security
feature provides an important layer of counterfeit resistance for
ICAO-compliant travel documents by offering enhanced protection to
both the document and chip against photo substitution, data
alteration and attacks on the chip. Digimarc provides software
development kits to enable licensed vendors and systems integrators
to securely incorporate the capability to decode the IDMarc feature
in their reader device products. The 3M(TM) Authentication System
with its 3M(TM) Full Page Reader from 3M Company as well as the
DSVII-PA portable travel document reader from Datastrip Inc. are
currently in the final phase of certification as IDMarc-compatible
readers for authenticating travel documents and will be available
in Q2 2005. "For border control agencies around the world, each
new, verifiable security feature of a travel document enhances
confidence in the document's authenticity. 3M is pleased to
collaborate with Digimarc in identifying and inhibiting travel
document fraud," said Todd Kealey, marketing development manager of
3M Company's Security Systems Division. "We see the addition of
IDMarc verification in our family of portable document readers as
an invaluable and exciting tool that provides a new level of
identity document authentication capability for law enforcement,
border control officials and the officer in the field," said Roger
Morrison, director of Federal Sales of Datastrip Inc. "This new
release of IDMarc creates a highly effective, interlocking digital
security layer that further enhances the security of chip-based
travel IDs against digital counterfeiting threats and attacks
against the chip," said J. Scott Carr, president, Digimarc
Watermarking Solutions. "The feature can be reliably inspected
using secure software and standard travel document readers to
establish the authenticity and integrity of protected documents
across jurisdictions. We're pleased to be able to offer this
enhanced version to issuers that are moving to ePassports, as well
as to the smart card industry as a means to provide additional
security to chip-based IDs." IDMarc v3.0 is available today.
Pricing for authorized government issuers and device OEMs is
available upon request. About Digimarc Digimarc Corporation
(NASDAQ:DMRCE), based in Beaverton, Oregon, is a leading supplier
of secure media solutions used in a wide range of security,
identification and digital media content applications. Digimarc
provides products and services that enable production of more than
60 million personal identification documents, including two-thirds
of U.S. driver licenses and IDs for more than 20 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 192
issued U.S. patents with more than 4,000 claims, and more than 400
pending 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 European offices in London. Please go to
www.digimarc.com for more company information. About GET Global
Enterprise Technologies Corp. is part of GET Group, a group of high
technology development and application companies whose principal
activities are systems integration and solutions for ID and travel
document/passport issuing (Toppan) and management systems, border
control systems, traffic systems, health care/medical claims
systems, and smart card systems. With 14 international offices, its
solutions serve government, commercial and financial clients around
the world. About 3M Company Every day, 3M people find new ways to
make amazing things happen. Wherever they are, whatever they do,
the company's customers know they can rely on 3M to help make their
lives better. 3M's brands include icons such as Scotch, Post-it,
Scotchgard, Thinsulate, Scotch-Brite, Filtrete, Command and Dyneon.
Serving customers in more than 200 countries around the world, the
company's 67,000 people use their expertise, technologies and
global strength to lead in major markets including consumer and
office; display and graphics; electronics and telecommunications;
safety, security and protection services; health care; industrial
and transportation. For more information, including the latest
product and technology news, visit www.3M.com/security. 3M, Scotch,
Post-it, Scotchgard, Thinsulate, Scotch-Brite, Filtrete, Command
and Dyneon are trademarks of 3M. About Datastrip Datastrip is a
leading provider of mobile biometric verification devices and 2D
bar code software with associated hardware. Datastrip and its
integration partners provide total solutions for the production of
ID cards, passports, national ID cards, driver's licenses, voter
registration cards, health cards, financial cards and other
identity documents, as well as mobile AFIS and biometric
verification systems. For more information, call 800-548-2517 or
visit www.datastrip.com. Securities Safe Harbor Under the Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 This release contains
certain "forward-looking statements" that are made pursuant to the
"safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based on management's
current reasonable expectations and 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, among
other things, changes in economic, business, competitive,
technological and/or regulatory factors and trends. Digimarc is not
obligated to (and expressly disclaims any obligation to)
revise/update any forward-looking statements in order to reflect
events or circumstances that may arise after the date of this
release. More detailed information about risk factors that may
affect actual results is set forth in filings by Digimarc with the
Securities and Exchange Commission, including Digimarc's 2004 Form
10-K, including Part II, Item 7 thereof ("Management's Discussion
and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations")
under the captions "Overview," "Restatement of Financial
Statements," "Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates," and
"Liquidity and Capital Resources," Part I, Item 1 thereof
("Business") under the caption "Risk Factors" and Part II, Item 9A
thereof ("Controls and Procedures").
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