Microsoft Corp. today announced intellectual property (IP) licensing agreements with a series of high-growth companies that will utilize Windows� fonts, a set of traffic-related technologies from Microsoft Research and Windows Connect Now technology to pursue new business opportunities. Information technology companies Ascender Corp., Inrix, D-Link, BridgeCo, Lexar Media Inc., I-O Data Device, GoVideo and SMC Networks are among the many growing businesses that are looking to leverage Microsoft's intellectual property licensing programs to grow their businesses.

"By licensing out the intellectual property generated from our R&D efforts, we're able to help startups and other high-growth companies expand their businesses," said David Kaefer, director of business development in the Intellectual Property and Licensing Group at Microsoft. "This isn't about licensing a few patents and generating modest income; this is about jump-starting the growth of our partners that can take some of our early ideas and build upon them in a way that maximizes their commercial potential."

Ascender, founded in February 2004, is a rapidly growing company based in Elk Grove Village, Ill., that specializes in multilingual and custom font development. Through an IP licensing agreement with Microsoft, Ascender will adapt and provide various Windows fonts, including many multilingual fonts currently supplied by Microsoft, to deliver new solutions to their customers. Microsoft has made a tremendous investment in fonts, but they are generally only available in Microsoft� products. Now developers can license many Microsoft fonts from Ascender to enhance their products, provide Windows compatibility and solve multilingual challenges. Ascender also is making available for the first time Georgia�, Tahoma� and Verdana� in legacy font formats still popular with desktop publishers and designers.