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Contact: Tom Kivett Robert Dekker

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IFI Patent Intelligence Issues Annual Rankings Of Top U.S. Patent Assignees

2006 sets all-time record with 173,772 patents issued—an average of 476 per day

WILMINGTON, Del., (Jan. 11, 2007) — Through the use of state-of-the-art assignee name standardization, IFI Patent Intelligence, a Wolters Kluwer Health business, today announced its annual compilation of the world’s top-ranked U.S. patent winners. IFI’s rankings for the 35 leading organizations are posted on the company’s website, www.ificlaims.com.

According to IFI’s analysis, 2006 was a banner year for corporate patents with 173,772 issued—an all-time U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) record and a hefty 20.8 percent increase compared to 2005. This increase comes on the heels of two years in a row of patent-grant decreases and appears to negate the position that intellectual property activity is on a downswing.

IBM Corp. holds the top slot this year, as it has for 14 years running, with a record 3,651 patents. Samsung enters the top three for the first time at the number 2 position followed by Canon at number 3, Matsushita at number 4, and HP at number 5, all of which exceeded the 2,000 mark and had their biggest issue years ever. In the past 5 years, no organization other than IBM has ever broken the 2,000 barrier.

“2006 panned out as a banner year in terms of the number of individual patents granted and leads us to believe that the USPTO is making headway in addressing its backlog of patent applications,” said Darlene Slaughter, general manager of IFI Patent Intelligence. “Although the number of patents being granted is not the only gauge of technological advancement, the relative increase in number of patents being generated indicates a growing emphasis on the value of intellectual property.”

Japan-based organizations lead the U.S. patent-assignee list with 9 of the top 20 slots (U.S.-based organizations hold only 7 spots on that same list). Although electronics dominates the top 25 list, other sectors are also showing growth. For example, the total number of pharmaceutical-related patents granted in 2006 increased approximately 22 percent over 2005. Additionally, biotech patents grew roughly 29 percent over the previous year.

IFI compiles its listing from original USPTO data using the powerful indexing and standardization algorithms of CLAIMS^®, the most reliable, text-searchable database of U.S. patents in the world. The collection of CLAIMS ^® databases makes searching for patent data accurate and efficient. CLAIMS ^® is available via ThomsonDialog, STN International and Questel.

A list of 2006’s top-35performers as compiled by IFI follows:

Rank	Company Name	No. Patents
1	INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORP	* 3651
2	SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO LTD KR	2453
3	CANON K K JP	2378
4	MATSUSHITA ELECTRIC INDUSTRIAL CO LTD JP	2273
5	HEWLETT-PACKARD DEVELOPMENT CO L P	** 2113
6	INTEL CORP	1962
7	SONY CORP JP	1810
8	HITACHI LTD JP	1749
9	TOSHIBA CORP JP	1717
10	MICRON TECHNOLOGY INC	1612
11	FUJITSU LTD JP	1513
12	MICROSOFT CORP	1463
13	SEIKO EPSON CORP JP	1205
14	GENERAL ELECTRIC CO	1051
15	FUJI PHOTO FILM CO LT D JP	918
16	INFINEON TECHNOLOGIES AG DE	904
17	KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS E LECTRONICS N V NL	901
18	TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INC	884
19	SIEMENS AG DE	857
20	HONDA MOTOR CO LTD JP	836
21	SUN MICROSYSTEMS INC	776
22	DENSO CORP JP	770
23	NEC CORP JP	744
24	LG ELECTRONICS INC KR	695
24	RICOH CO LTD JP	695
26	SHARP K K JP	692
27	EASTMAN KODAK CO	688
28	BROADCOM CORP	660
29	CISCO TECHNOLOGY INC	649
30	BOSCH, ROBERT GMBH DE	648
31	MITSUBISHI DENKI K K JP	623
32	NOKIA AB OY FI	597
33	RENESAS TECHNOLOGY CORP JP	593
34	MOTOROLA INC	578
35	HONEYWELL INTERNATIONAL INC	559

*Includes 2 patents issued as unassigned for which Certificates of Correction have been published indicating IBM as the assignee.

**Includes 5 patents assigned to Hewlett-Packard Co.

For more than 50 years, IFI has been the preeminent producer of patent databases. Complete information on more than 1,700 companies worldwide that received 10 or more U.S. patents in 2006 will be published in IFI’s Patent Intelligence and Technology Report, available in May. IFI produces monthly electronic updates of the report that monitor current patenting activity throughout the year. IFI is part of Wolters Kluwer Health. For ordering information, contact IFI at 800-331-4955 or visit www.ificlaims.com.

EDITORS: For analysis, factoids, market sector breakdowns or to set an interview with Darlene Slaughter, please contact Tom Kivett at 212-727-2935 or via email at tkivett@kivettandco.com.

About Wolters Kluwer Health

Wolters Kluwer Health (Conshohocken, Pa.), a division of Wolters Kluwer, is a leading provider of information services for professionals and students in medicine, nursing, allied health, pharmacy and the pharmaceutical industry. Major brands include Lippincott Williams & Wilkins and Facts & Comparisons for medical and drug reference tools and textbooks; Ovid Technologies, Medi-Span and ProVation Medical for electronic information; and Adis International and Source® for pharmaceutical information. Wolters Kluwer Health has annual revenues (2005) of $814 million and employs approximately 3,000 people. For more information, see www.wkhealth.com.

About Wolters Kluwer

Wolters Kluwer is a leading global information services and publishing company. The company provides products and services for professionals in the health, tax, accounting, corporate, financial services, legal and regulatory, and education sectors. Wolters Kluwer has annual revenues (2005) of €3.4 billion, employs approximately 18,400 people worldwide and maintains operations across Europe, North America, and Asia Pacific. Wolters Kluwer is headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands . Its shares are quoted on the Euronext Amsterdam (WKL) and are included in the AEX and Euronext 100 indices. For more information, visit www.wolterskluwer.com.

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