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Press Release |
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VeriSign Expands Digital Brand Management Services in Europe
Company Names Kristofer Peterson to Lead Efforts; Forms partnership
with Field Fisher Waterhouse
LONDON – April 27, 2005 - VeriSign, Inc. (Nasdaq: VRSN), the
leading provider of intelligent infrastructure services for the Internet
and telecommunications networks, today announced that it is expanding
its Digital Brand Management Services in Europe through the appointment
of Kristofer Peterson to Sales Executive for the United Kingdom.
VeriSign also announced today that it is partnering with Field Fisher
Waterhouse (FFW), a leading UK law firm specializing in intellectual
property, and will enable FFW to offer Digital Brand Management Services
directly to its clients.
VeriSign Digital Brand Management Services
help companies protect their global brands online. Today, as companies
try to grow their businesses by offering additional services and products
within multiple countries, they face ever-increasing challenges in protecting
those brand assets and brand integrity online.
Current Brand Protection Challenges Include:
- Lack of domain name
portfolio management: Each generic top-level domain (gTLD) and country
code top-level domain (ccTLD) needs to be registered on a recurring
basis and must usually be paid for with local currency. For global companies
dealing with multiple domain names for multiple products and services
in each country, this is a complex, error prone, time-intensive process.
- Brand protection:
For a global company, brand protection must include more than just domain
name registrations. It must include proactive measures to protect a
company’s brand from being used in fraud and phishing, or from misuse
through association with objectionable content or grey market goods.
Consider these facts:
- Number of active
phishing sites in February 2005: 2,625
- Average monthly
growth rate in phishing sites from July 2004 – February 2005: 26 percent
- Number of brands
hijacked by phishing campaigns in February: 64 (Source: Anti-Phishing Working Group March 2005 report)
VeriSign Digital Brand Management Services were created
to help companies manage their domain name portfolios and protect their
online brands. Specifically, they include:
- Domain Name Services: Includes registrations and modifications
for gTLDs and ccTLDs, automatic renewal services, early registrations
for trademark holders before new domain names are opened to the general
public, access to a sophisticated online portfolio management tool (Digital
Brand Manager) and strategic advice
- Brand Monitoring Services, Through partnerships with best-in-class
industry partners and proprietary tools, these services monitor the
Web for brand misuse or abuse; fraud and phishing; and threats against
companies or personnel, providing relevant, actionable results
- DNS Assurance Services: Leveraging VeriSign’s unparalleled
Internet infrastructure used to run the .com and .net registries, these
services provide 99.999 percent domain name resolution and Internet
system uptime so that critical email and Web systems are always available
- Global Digital Brand Expansion Services: These services enable companies to expand their global
brands by helping them register domain names in countries where they
would otherwise not be qualified due to local domain name registration
restrictions
By appointing Kristofer Peterson to Sales Executive
for the United Kingdom and through its new partnership with Field Fisher
Waterhouse (FFW), VeriSign is re-affirming its commitment to the UK
market and building on its existing business in the United States as
well as a strong presence in the European market, with existing offices
in Germany, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and France, and a new representative
appointed in Switzerland, Guy Weiss, earlier this year.
By teaming with FFW, VeriSign will be able to offer
the firm the ability to customize the Digital Brand Manager with its
brand and enable its customers to take advantage of more IP products
and services.
“We chose to team with VeriSign Digital Brand Management
Services because we wanted to provide a broader range of intellectual
property services to our clients,” said Simon Chapman, Field Fisher
Waterhouse. “Building on VeriSign’s extensive experience in meeting
the needs of enterprise companies throughout Europe, our customers will
now be able to register, modify and manage their domain names easily
and securely through an online portal.”
To learn more about VeriSign’s Digital Brand Management
Services, you may visit: http://www.verisign.com/dbms.
About VeriSign
VeriSign, Inc. operates intelligent infrastructure services that
enable businesses and individuals to find, connect, secure, and transact
across today's complex, global networks. Additional news and information
about the company is available at http://www.verisign.com/
For more information, contact:
VeriSign Media Relations: Pat Burns, pburns@verisign.com,
703-948-4471
VeriSign Investor Relations: Tom McCallum, tmccallum@verisign.com,
650-426-3744
Statements in this announcement other than historical
data and information constitute forward-looking statements within the
meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E
of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These statements involve risks
and uncertainties that could cause VeriSign's actual results to differ
materially from those stated or implied by such forward-looking statements.
The potential risks and uncertainties include, among others, the uncertainty
of future revenue and profitability and potential fluctuations in quarterly
operating results due to such factors as the risk that VeriSign's announced
strategic relationships, including the relationship described herein,
may not result in additional products, services, customers, profits
or revenues; and increased competition and pricing pressures. More information
about potential factors that could affect the company's business and
financial results is included in VeriSign's filings with the Securities
and Exchange Commission, including in the company's Annual Report on
Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2004 and quarterly reports
on Form 10-Q. VeriSign undertakes no obligation to update any of the
forward- looking statements after the date of this press release.
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