IPI Financial Services Names Three Intellectual Property Experts to Its Board of Advisors.

Business Editors

CHARLOTTE, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 10, 2004

The Hon. Bruce Lehman, Jonathan Low, & Irving Rappaport Will Form Core of Advisory Team

IP Innovations Financial Services, Inc., a specialty finance company serving companies with intellectual property assets, has named three distinguished intellectual property experts to its Board of Advisors: Jonathan Low, an intangible asset expert, Irving Rappaport, a former chief patent counsel and director of intellectual property at major corporations, and the Hon. Bruce Lehman, Commissioner of the United States Patent and Trademarks from 1993 to 1998.

The Board of Advisors will provide IPI's management team with strategic guidance, and help to expand the company's IP-based credit enhancement program. IPI's pioneering credit enhancement program enables lenders to provide loans to companies with eligible intellectual property, such as key patents and trademarks. It permits corporations to access cost-efficient, non-dillutive capital based on the market value of their intellectual property. IPI looks forward to drawing upon the knowledge and leadership of Messrs. Low, Rappaport and Lehman to strengthen IPI's performance and help the company to better serve its clients.

Jonathan Low is a management performance expert, focusing on the valuation of intangibles such as brand, reputation, intellectual capital, innovation, alliances and organizational transitions. Prior to founding Predictiv, LLC in 2003, Low was a Senior Fellow at Cap Gemini Ernst & Young. Under his leadership, CGEY produced four major studies on the growing role of intangibles in the global economy, including Decisions That Matter and The Value Creation Index. Low's work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Business Week, Forbes and other publications. He has been a guest on ABC-TV, CBS, CNBC, CNNfn, National Public Radio and other electronic media. He is the co-author of Invisible Advantage (Perseus Press, 2002).

Low has served in key positions related to his work on the valuation of intangibles, including Co-Chair for Strategic and Organizational Issues of The Brookings Institution's Task Force on Understanding Intangible Sources of Value. He has been invited to present his findings to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Financial Accounting Standards Board, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. From 1993 to 1996 he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary (Acting) for Work and Technology Policy at the US Department of Labor. In that capacity, Low served on the SEC Steering Committee on the Future of Accounting and Financial Reporting, The Conference Board Working Group on Corporate Performance Measures and was the U.S. representative to the inaugural OECD Paris Conference on Corporate Governance. Low is a Fellow of the National Knowledge and IP Task Force. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College and Yale University's School of Management.

Irving Rappaport draws on three decades experience as a patent attorney and business advisor specializing in intellectual property matters. Over that time period he has served as Associate General Counsel or Chief Patent Counsel at National Semiconductor (1991-1993), Apple Computer (1984-1990), Bally Manufacturing Corporation (1982-1984), Data General Corporation (1978-1982) and Medtronic, Inc. (1971-1977). In 1994 he co-founded with Kevin Rivette Aurigin Systems, a software company specializing in patent analysis, which raised $65 million in three rounds of venture funding. At Aurigin, Rappaport was responsible for several patented inventions. Prior to his distinguished career in business, Rappaport served as an examiner in the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Rappaport, who has extensive experience in intellectual property licensing, and has served as an expert witness in intellectual property litigation, earned an M.B.A. from Boston University in 1969, a J.D. with Honors from George Washington University in 1966 and B.S.E.E. from Washington University in St. Louis in 1962. He is an active public speaker and has written articles about intellectual property issues. He was appointed by U.S. Secretaries of Commerce Baldridge, Verity, Franklin and Brown and United States Trade Representatives Yuetter and Hills to serve four terms (1987-1994) on the Industry Functional Advisory Committee on Intellectual Property Rights for Trade Policy Matter (IFAC-3), which led to the GATT and NAFTA Intellectual Property laws enacted by the U.S. in 1995.

Hon. Bruce A. Lehman is president and Chief Executive Officer of the International Intellectual Property Institute (www.iipi.org), a non-partisan, not-for-profit think tank, established in Washington, DC in 1999 that provides information and education to audiences such as governments, businesses, researchers and innovators. The Institute's primary objective is to facilitate the worldwide understanding and use of intellectual property rights and systems as a mechanism for economic development.

From August 1993 through December 1998, Lehman served as Assistant Secretary of Commerce and U.S. Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks. At the request of President Clinton, he served concurrently in the fall of 1997 as acting Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, which fosters and recognizes the work of America's artistic and creative community.

In 1994 The National Law Journal named Lehman its "Lawyer of the Year." In 1997, The National Journal, a Washington-based national magazine of public policy, named Lehman one of the 100 most influential people in Washington

As the leader of the U.S. delegation to WIPO's December 1996 Diplomatic Conference on Certain Copyright and Neighboring Rights Questions, his team successfully concluded negotiations which resulted in the adoption of two treaties: the WIPO Copyright Treaty and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty. These treaties, by updating international copyright law for the digital age, have greatly facilitated the growth of on-line digital commerce over the Internet.

Lehman is a member of the Policy Advisory Commission to the Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the specialized United Nations agency headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. Prior to joining the Clinton administration, Lehman was a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of law firm of Swidler & Berlin for ten years, where he represented companies, trade associations and individuals in the areas of intellectual property rights. His clients were drawn from the motion picture, telecommunications, pharmaceutical, computer software and broadcasting industries.

Before entering private practice, Lehman worked for nine years in the U.S. House of Representatives as counsel to the Committee on the Judiciary and chief counsel to the Subcommittee on Courts, Civil Liberties, and the Administration of Justice. Lehman was the Committee's principal legal adviser in the drafting of the 1976 Copyright Act, the 1980 Computer Software Amendments, and 1982 Amendments to the Patent Laws. He was awarded his B.A. and J.D. degrees from the University of Wisconsin, and is a member of the bar of the District of Columbia.

"IPI is pleased to be able to form the core of its advisory team with three such renowned advisors," said Keith Bergelt, Senior Vice President of IPI Financial Services. "Their diverse experience and broad perspective will go a long way to facilitating our goals."

Additionally, Richard D. Rudder, will be of counsel to the advisory board. Rudder is a partner at Baker & McKenzie in New York specializing in Securitization & Structured Finance; Capital Markets - Debt; Loans & Credit Facilities. He led the legal team that securitized various music royalties, including the well-known "Bowie" Bonds transaction, and is an expert on the legal aspects of asset-backed transactions.

About the Company

IP Innovations Financial Services, Inc., www.ipinn.com, is a specialized financial services firm and credit enhancement provider focusing on intellectual property. The firm, based in Charlotte, NC, provides credit enhancement to banks and other financial institutions for royalty and non-royalty generating patents, trademarks and copyrights used as collateral in commercial financing opportunities. IPI provides lenders with the ability to expand their customer base and affords IP owners access to low cost, non-dilutive capital. IPI's primary investor is the Principal Group (NYSE: PFG), www.principal.com.