Atmos Energy Corporation Purchases a License under the Ronald A. Katz Technology Licensing, L.P. Patents.

LOS ANGELES -- Atmos Energy Corporation, the country's largest natural gas-only distributor, (NYSE:ATO) headquartered in Dallas, has purchased a license under the patent portfolio held by Ronald A. Katz Technology Licensing, L.P. and licensed through its affiliate, A2D, L.P.

The nonexclusive license covers services offered by Atmos in the "Energy and Utility Services" Field of Use, including customer service provided via automated systems and live agents. Other terms of the license were not disclosed.

The patents held by Ronald A. Katz Technology Licensing, L.P. cover a wide range of interactive technology including automated forms of: customer service, securities trading, prescription refill services, merchandising, prepaid services, telephone conferences, registration, home shopping, as well as functions involved in securing information from databases by telephone, interactive cable transactions, and various other uses of toll free and local numbers.

"We strive to provide every caller with the fastest, most efficient access to their account data as well as providing a phone system that will allow each caller to report an outage or get outage information quickly and easily 24 hours a day. Coverage under this important portfolio of patents facilitates our ability to offer this customer support," said Rand LaVon, Public Communications Director, Atmos Energy.

Ronald A. Katz stated, "We welcome Atmos Energy to the large group of energy and utility companies who have purchased license rights under this portfolio."

There are over 200 companies with license rights under this portfolio, including over 25 energy and utility companies. Companies with license rights under this portfolio include: Advanta Corp., Alltel Corporation, American Century, American Express, Automatic Data Processing, Inc., AT&T Corp., Bank of America Corporation, BB&T Corporation, Capital One Services Inc., Cellco Partnership d/b/a Verizon Wireless, Certegy Inc., Dell Inc., Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc., Delta Air Lines, Inc., Edward D. Jones & Co., L.P., Equifax Inc., Excel Communications Inc., First Data Corporation, First National Bank of Omaha, First Tennessee National Corporation, The Gallup Organization, Hewlett-Packard Company, Home Shopping Network Inc., Household International, Inc., HSBC Bank USA, International Business Machines (IBM), KeyCorp, LaSalle Bank Corporation, Marriott International, Inc., MCI Inc., Mediacom Communications Corporation, Mellon Financial Corporation, Merck & Co., Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc., Metris Companies Inc., Microsoft, MoneyGram Payment Systems Inc., Nationwide, OppenheimerFunds, Inc., People's Bank, PetMed Express, Inc., The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc., Principal Financial Group, Inc., Prudential Financial, Inc., QVC, Inc., Sears, Roebuck and Co., Shop At Home, Inc., Sprint Corporation, SouthTrust Bank, Sunoco, Inc., Synovus, Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America, TD Ameritrade Holding Corporation, T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., The Vanguard Group, Inc., Verizon California Inc. and its affiliates, Wachovia Corporation, and Wells Fargo & Company.

Mr. Katz is the named inventor on a large number of patents primarily in the fields of telecommunications and computing. He also formed Telecredit, Inc., the nation's first on-line real time credit and check cashing authorization system, and was awarded a patent as co-inventor of that technology.

Atmos Energy Corporation, headquartered in Dallas, is the country's largest natural gas-only distributor, serving about 3.2 million gas utility customers. Atmos Energy's utility operations serve more than 1,500 communities in 12 states from the Blue Ridge Mountains in the East to the Rocky Mountains in the West. Atmos Energy's nonutility operations, organized under Atmos Energy Holdings, Inc., operate in 22 states. They provide natural gas marketing and procurement services to industrial, commercial and municipal customers and manage company-owned natural gas pipeline and storage assets, including one of the largest intrastate natural gas pipeline systems in Texas. Atmos Energy is a Fortune 500 company. For more information, visit www.atmosenergy.com.