Beyond Industry-Leading Networks: Verizon's 2,500 Patents

NEW YORK - Patents and the intellectual property they represent come from innovation, and Verizon continues to be an industry leader in this critically important area.

Verizon now owns nearly 2,500 patents in the United States and around the world, and the list continues to grow.  To recognize the groundbreaking work that represents, Verizon recently honored 94 Verizon inventors at a patent awards luncheon.  Since January 2006, 192 patents have been issued to the company - an average of more than 10 new patents each month.

The company's patent portfolio represents intellectual property for applications like video on demand; speech recognition; technology to make the Internet safer; and managing voice, data and video traffic on communications networks.  The patents not only protect proprietary technologies and processes in a very competitive market, but also Verizon licenses some of its patents, producing revenue for the company.

"The work of our inventors gives Verizon an impressive and valuable patent portfolio," said Verizon Telecom President Virginia Ruesterholz at the patent-awards luncheon.  "These innovative problem-solvers understand how technology improves our customers' lives."

Verizon Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer Mark Wegleitner added, "Every day we hear from inventors around this company who have great ideas that help us generate exciting new products for our customers, and they help us reduce the costs and time associated with providing great customer service."

One of the employee inventors recognized recently by Verizon, IT Executive Director Craig Reding, said, "It is an exciting time to be part of a team that combines media, telephony, IP and broadband services to provide the market with competitive choices for the increasingly mobile and fast-paced customer. Verizon promotes and recognizes its employees to think outside the box, to be innovative, and it encourages the creation of ideas and inventions to promote the company's drive to provide better products for its customers."

Reding was part of a group that developed a new technique for implementing voice messaging using e-mail.

Another inventor, Baoqing Ye, a member of the Verizon Technology team, said, "I felt a great deal of pride that I and the other Verizon inventors were recognized for our contributions. I'm delighted that the innovation I worked on -- which helps alleviate network congestion during Internet denial of service attacks -- will help ensure that our networks are always available to our customers."

Overall, Verizon now owns 2,044 U.S. patents and 450 foreign patents.

Among some of the new patents awarded to Verizon in the past 18 months were:

• Patents for new or enhanced voice services, such as call management through customer computers and other ways to leverage the connectivity provided by Internet connections.

• Patents related to providing IP networking and related services via wireless devices.
• Patents related to the configuration and testing of firewalls to protect services (and customers) connected with the Internet.
• Patents for new processes that can be used to help battle denial of service attacks.
• Patents related to enhancing network capability for delivering bandwidth-demanding content such as video on demand.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ), headquartered in New York, is a leader in delivering broadband and other wireline and wireless communication innovations to mass market, business, government and wholesale customers.  Verizon Wireless operates America's most reliable wireless network, serving 60.7 million customers nationwide.  Verizon's Wireline operations include Verizon Business, which delivers innovative and seamless business solutions to customers around the world, and Verizon Telecom, which brings customers the benefits of converged communications, information and entertainment services over the nation's most advanced fiber-optic network.  A Dow 30 company, Verizon has a diverse workforce of more than 238,000 and last year generated consolidated operating revenues of more than $88 billion.  For more information, visit www.verizon.com.

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