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Dialog Adds Korean Patent Abstracts

CARY, NC, USA, January 8, 2002 -- The Dialog Corporation, a Thomson business and a leading worldwide provider of online-based information services, today announced that Korean patent abstracts -- a valuable source of detailed information about technological and intellectual property developments both in Korea and elsewhere -- are now available for electronic retrieval through the Dialog® online information service.

The Korean patent abstracts are available in the Derwent World Patents Index and Derwent World Patents Index Extension. Both of those databases, produced by Derwent Information (also a Thomson business), are featured in the Dialog service.

The Derwent databases include abstracts of full patent applications (so-called "Korean A" documents), starting with documents published from 2001 onwards. More limited information (application titles) is available for patent applications from 1977 onward.

In 2001, Dialog uploaded about 96,000 of the full Korean patent abstracts, joining a rich reservoir of other patent and intellectual property information. Documents from 40 other patent-issuing authorities are also included in the Derwent databases, adding more than 20,000 new documents to the Dialog service each week, for example.

"Korea exerts a leadership role in research and development, with many of its large corporations setting the pace in global industries," said David Brown, senior vice president of content development. "The information that can be gleamed through patent abstracts will be a boost to those who need to gather competitive intelligence, track technology innovations or are researching possible licensing and partnering arrangements."

Patents filed in Korea reflect that country's strength in such industries as semiconductors; manufacturing; telephone and data transmissions; broadcasting, radio and line transmission systems; audio and video technology; and computers and circuits.

Leading Korean companies include Samsung Electronics, Hyundai Electronics and LG Electronics.

Dialog's Brown stressed that 80 percent of the information disclosed through the Korean patent abstracts is not available through any other published source. Additionally, many of the patents applications submitted in Korea originate with non-Korean companies, making Dialog's new content an additional resource to track multinational companies.

"Derwent research shows that 17 percent of all patents filed at the Korean Patent Office are from Japanese companies, with 10 percent from U.S. companies," Brown said.

The Derwent World Patent Index and Derwent World Patent Index Extension are available through the Dialog service as Files 350, 351 and 352. [See the Files 351/352,350 Bluesheet for search specifics.]

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About Dialog
Dialog is the worldwide leader in providing online-based information services to organizations seeking competitive advantages in such fields as business, science, engineering, finance and law. Its products and services, such as Dialog®, Profound® and DataStar™, offer organizations the ability to precisely retrieve data from more than 800 million unique records, accessible via the Internet or through delivery to enterprise Intranets. For almost three decades, Dialog's brands have been known for their breadth and depth of content, precision searching and speed. The Winter Corporation recently recognized Dialog for its breadth and depth of content when they named the company the Grand Prize-winner in the Database Scalability Program 2000.

Headquartered in Cary, N.C., USA, with direct operations in 30 countries, Dialog products are used by more than 20,000 corporate customers in over 100 countries. Dialog is a subsidiary of The Thomson Corporation, a leading global e-information and solutions company in the business and professional marketplace with 2000 revenues of approximately $6 billion. The Corporation's common shares are listed on the Toronto (TSE:TOC) and London stock exchanges.

For more information about Dialog, call 1-800-3-DIALOG or visit www.dialog.com. For more information about Thomson, visit www.thomson.com.

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All designated trademarks used herein are the property of The Dialog Corporation or its subsidiaries. Registered marks are registered by The Dialog Corporation or its subsidiaries, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. All other marks are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

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