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UL Offers Free Online Course in Copyright Protection for Standards Customers Through Intellectual Property Shield

NORTHBROOK, Ill., May 24, 2007 -- Underwriters Laboratories (UL) announced today that effective June 1, 2007, all customers purchasing UL Standards for Safety are eligible to participate in a free online training course on copyright protection through Intellectual Property Shield, Inc. (IP-Shield). IP-Shield operates the IP-AllianceTM which helps protect content providers and Standards Development Organizations (SDOs) from infringing activities in settings where licensed documents are used.

Copyright infringement costs business millions of dollars each year in lost revenue, even as Internet, file sharing, and digital copying technologies pose additional copyright challenges. Organizations that frequently use licensed standards and technical publications have found that many common workplace document-handling practices may actually constitute copyright infringement. Although often not engaged in with malicious intent, such practices can place employees and their employers at risk of being named in an infringement action.

The Copyright AwareTM course is designed to significantly mitigate this risk by providing users with the proper training and knowledge to handle copyrighted, proprietary content appropriately. The course covers history and definition of copyright, general rules for copying and distributing licensed documents, ramifications of misuse, and real-world examples of infringing activities. For users interested in legal aspects, case law citations are available for most topics. A pre-test feature also allows informed users to obtain certification without taking the entire course. Once the full course and quizzes are successfully completed, users earn a certificate of completion.

As an IP-Alliance member and world leader in developing safety standards, UL is offering this valuable, user-friendly course at no cost to all UL customers that purchase UL Standards materials. Interested UL customers should contact: Richard Olesen, U.S. Standards, UL Silicon Valley Office, +1 408 754-6650 or Richard.A.Olesen@us.ul.com. IP-Shield also recently released an international version of Copyright Aware for non-U.S. users. For more information, visit: www.ip-shield.com.

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