SANTA CLARA, Calif. 2/1/2005 - Macrovision Corporation (Nasdaq: MVSN), the leader in digital media management and content protection, today announced that Microsoft Corp. has licensed and received certain rights to Macrovision’s intellectual property (IP), which includes patents and copyrights, regarding managing and preventing unauthorized copies on analog video interfaces. Covered Macrovision technologies include Macrovision’s original analog copy protection (ACP), new enhanced capabilities for ACP aimed at new uses such as video-on-demand and pay-per-view (ACPe), and other rights signaling technologies (CGMS-A, the US over-the-air "Broadcast flag" and others).
"Microsoft values Macrovision’s leadership on media copy management and analog rights signaling technologies, and has taken the licenses necessary to ensure a seamless experience for consumers, and an effective platform for software developers in regards to managing and consuming video content," said Brad Brunell, General Manager of IP Licensing at Microsoft. "This licensing agreement reaffirms Microsoft’s ongoing commitment to respect and value intellectual property because licensing leads to innovation and investment."
This agreement opens the door for PC, set-top box, and other device manufacturers employing Microsoft software to license new Macrovision ACP capabilities, with confidence that the Microsoft operating system software will be compatible with all the possible uses of the world’s leading analog copy protection and rights signaling technologies. This also levels the playing field for PCs, set top boxes and other consumer electronic devices receiving high value pay-per-view and video-on-demand content.
"Macrovision and Microsoft have a similar vision of the networked home where consumers have freedom to choose when and where they are entertained, as copyrights are used consistently as agreed by consumers and the rights owners," said Steve Weinstein, vice president and general manager, Entertainment Technologies Group, Macrovision Corporation. "With this agreement, the networked home moves one step closer to realizing that vision."
About Macrovision Solutions Corporation
Macrovision Solutions Corporation is focused on providing a uniquely simple digital home entertainment experience by delivering solutions to businesses to protect, enhance and distribute digital goods to consumers across multiple channels. Macrovision's technologies are deployed by companies in the entertainment, consumer electronics, cable and satellite, and online distribution markets to solve industry-specific challenges and bring greater value and a more robust user experience to their customers. The result of deploying Macrovision's solutions is a simple end user experience for discovering, managing and enjoying digital content. Today, Macrovision provides connected middleware, media recognition, interactive programming guides, copy protection and rich media, data and metadata on music, games, movies and television programming. The company also operates an entertainment portal which can be found at http://www.allmusic.com/. Macrovision holds over 4,100 issued or pending patents and patent applications worldwide.
Macrovision is headquartered in Santa Clara, California, with numerous offices across the United States and around the world including Japan, Hong Kong, Luxembourg, and the United Kingdom. More information about Macrovision can be found at http://www.macrovision.com/.
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Forward Looking Statements
All statements contained herein that are not statements of historical fact, including statements that use the words "will" or "is expected to," or similar words that describe the Company's or its management's future plans, objectives, or goals, are "forward-looking statements" and are made pursuant to the Safe-Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause the actual results of the Company to be materially different from the historical results and/or from any future results or outcomes expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors are further addressed in the Company's most recent quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the period ended September 30, 2008 and such other documents as are filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time (available at http://www.sec.gov/). The Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements in order to reflect events or circumstances that may arise after the date of this release, except as required by law.
