PRESS RELEASE Tuesday, December 7, 1999 Contact: Morrie Goodman Pat Woodward (202)482-4883 Brigid Quinn 703-305-8341 SECRETARY DALEY TO AWARD 6 MILLIONTH PATENT TO STATE-OF-THE-ART INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INVENTION WASHINGTON, D.C. - Secretary of Commerce William M. Daley and Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks, Q. Todd Dickinson, will award the 6 millionth U.S. patent to Palm Computing for its HotSync Technology on Friday, December 10, 1999. Alan Kessler, President of Palm Computing will accept the patent in a morning ceremony at the Department’s Herbert C. Hoover Building. The HotSync Technology allows users of a handheld device based on the Palm Computing platform to synchronize their information with a computer at a single touch of a button. The HotSync technology provides for fast, easy backup of data and the ability to put the most up-to-date information from a desktop computer or server into the pocket or purse of the user. Patent number 1 was issued in 1836. Earlier patents were not numbered, although the first patent was issued in 1790. Last year the Patent and Trademark Office, a bureau of the Department of Commerce, issued 161,000 patents. WHAT: The 6 Millionth Patent: A Commemorative Celebration WHERE: Department of Commerce Herbert C. Hoover Auditorium 14th Street and Constitution Avenue Washington, DC WHEN: Friday, December 10, 1999 10:00 a.m.         ###