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Zi Receives China Patent
China Patent Office Grants Zi intellectual property rights for Chinese Input
CALGARY, AB, January 7, 2003 - Zi Corporation (NASDAQ: ZICA) (TSX: ZIC), a leading provider of intelligent interface solutions, today announced the State Intellectual Property Office of the People's Republic of China has provided notice that it has granted a patent to Zi that covers important elements of its eZiText® for Chinese text input system.
"This new China patent expands our patent portfolio to cover a principal and expanding market for Zi. The patent protects important differentiating features of our Chinese eZiText product," said Michael Lobsinger, Chief Executive Officer, Zi Corporation.
"With the large population and a sustained affinity for new and emerging technologies, China is an important market for any mobile technology company planning their global strategy," said J. Gerry Purdy, Ph.D., principal analyst with MobileTrax, a market research firm in Cupertino, California. According to China's Ministry of Information Industry, China has become the number one mobile market in the world with 200 million subscribers in November 2002. Growth is expected to continue at a rate of 13 to 20 percent a year to reach 300 million subscribers by the end of 2004. "The Chinese language consists of thousands of characters. The ability of text input technologies to simplify this complex language makes inputting of Chinese text on a mobile phone now a reality," added Purdy.
The new patent covers Zi's proprietary method of offering Chinese characters, component parts (otherwise known as partial Chinese characters), and word associations upon input of Chinese stroke or phonetic elements. Typically, Chinese characters consist of 1 to 20 strokes, but with Zi's proprietary methodologies, character input and prediction is reduced down to an average of 3 to 4 keystroke entries with the eZiText Chinese input system, facilitating fast and intuitive text entry for Chinese consumers.
"Zi is committed to providing market leading technologies for our customers and partners world wide," said Gary Kovacs, President, Zi Corporation. "With more than 40 of our 65 plus world wide manufacturing customers now supplying the Chinese markets with mobile handsets and set-top boxes, it is critical that they are equipped with a solution that is both approved by the Chinese regulatory commissions as well as one that is protected by Chinese patent law," added Kovacs. Zi's Chinese language database, layout, and performance are now fully certified by both China's State Language Commission and Ministry of Information Industry.
About Zi Corporation
Zi Corporation (www.zicorp.com) is a market-driven technology company delivering intelligent interface solutions to enhance the user experience of wireless and consumer technologies. The company's core technology products, eZiTap™ and eZiText, enable consumers and enterprise users to easily and quickly input text during short messaging, e-mailing, e-commerce transactions, Web browsing and similar applications in almost any written language. eZiTap is a unique combination of multi-tap, prediction and learning functions that enables the dynamic creation of vocabulary during text input. eZiText provides faster and more efficient text messaging through truly predictive one touch entry and word completion. Zi supports its strategic partners and customers from offices in Asia, Europe and North America. A publicly traded company, Zi Corporation is listed on the NASDAQ National Market (ZICA) and the Toronto Stock Exchange (ZIC).
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For more information:
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Investor Inquiries: Allen & Caron Inc Jill Bertotti Phone: (949) 474-4300 E-mail: jill@allencaron.com |
Zi Corporation Dale Kearns Chief Financial Officer Phone: (403) 233-8875 E-mail: investor@zicorp.com |
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Media Inquiries: Allen & Caron Inc Len Hall (Business/Financial Media) Phone: (949) 474-4300 E-mail: len@allencaron.com |