Dassault Systèmes Launches Digital Product Rights Management Solution

Close Collaboration with Microsoft to Protect Product Intellectual Property and Secure 3D Collaboration

PARIS, France, December 13, 2007- Dassault Systèmes (DS) (Nasdaq: DASTY; Euronext Paris: #13065, DSY.PA), a world leader in 3D and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions  announced today it is working with Microsoft Corp. to launch a digital product rights management solution. Combining DS’s know-how in 3D virtual product design and review with Microsoft’s expertise and products in Enterprise Rights Management, this out-of-the box solution offers designers the data protection they need to freely share innovative ideas in 3D with suppliers and partners outside their organization with the assurance that their intellectual property is secure.

As collaboration increases across manufacturing supply chains and business networks, the need for protected product-linked intellectual property (IP) becomes more critical.  A major benefit to creating products in 3D is that the data is intuitively understood by people no matter what language they speak, and this augments the possibility to collaborate with international partners.  A company’s 3D product IP is a goldmine that should be protected.  Dassault Systèmes and Microsoft have launched a solution to cover the complex needs of digital rights management and promote freer yet secure  collaboration.

“By enabling a highly secured file exchange environment, our digital product rights management solution provides companies with a powerful, secured and efficient way to manage their intellectual property when collaborating outside of DS’s PLM solutions,” says Dominique Florack, senior EVP, products- R&D, Dassault Systèmes.  “The administrators of documents created in Dassault Systèmes’ digital product definition solutions can simply define, apply and enforce corporate IP policy to all their contacts therefore controlling both offline and online access and usage of their documents.

Dassault Systèmes Digital Product Rights Management solution is based on Microsoft Windows® Rights Management Services (RMS), which includes services in Windows Server® 2003, Windows® XP and Windows Vista®, and works with RMS-enabled applications like the Microsoft® Office System to allow policy-based persistent protection of corporate emails, documents and intranet web-pages. Companies can use this technology to apply fine-grained permissions for people or groups to access confidential information. Based on encryption standards, this protection stays with the information even when it residesoutside of the company’s control such as when working with outside companies and contractors. Specific rules which control operations like copying and forwarding can be executed by system administrators, as well as by the creator of any piece of information.

“Customers have told us that it is critical for them to extend information protection offered by RMS to applications that create and consume high-value data assets. Our work with Dassault Systèmes is a major milestone for protecting intellectual property in PLM environments which has broad use in a variety of industries from manufacturing to electronics,” said Robert Wahbe, corporate vice president, Connected Systems Division, Microsoft. “We look forward to continue to work with Dassault Systèmes to bring best-of-breed information protection solutions to market.