`LERNOUT & HAUSPIE S REALSPEAK NATURAL SOUNDING TTS
`SHIPS; TELEPHONY DEVELOPERS SEIZE SOLUTION FOR
`DIVERSE NEEDS
`Technology to be Employed by Webley, MessageBlaster.com and 4th Peripheral;
`Award Winning L&H RealSpeak Technology is One of Several New Solutions to Help Position
`Company as Full-Range Telephony Vendor
`
` July 12, 1999
`BURLINGTON, MASS
` Lernout & Hauspie (NASDAQ: LHSP; EASDAQ:
`LHSP) (L&H ) announced today that just weeks after its award-winning L&H RealSpeak text-to-
`speech (TTS) technology began shipping, several telephony developers have contracted to build a diverse
`range of applications using the solution. L&H RealSpeak is a new de facto industry standard in TTS
`technology that reads aloud any text with a human sounding voice and represents a breakthrough in terms
`of voice quality and intelligibility. The contract agreements come shortly after Intel and L&H announced
`plans to form a joint venture to develop telephony and e-commerce solutions using L&H technology.
`Combined, these recent events demonstrate L&H s growing commitment to become the premier speech
`and language vendor for the telecommunications market.
`Telephony application developers Webley, MessageBlaster.com and 4th Peripheral all recently signed
`contracts to build applications employing L&H RealSpeak. The applications provide a diverse range of
`capabilities, including unified messaging from Webley, speech-enabled Internet-based messaging from
`MessageBlaster.com and voice access for Web pages from 4th Peripheral. Other companies that have
`recently signed contracts to deploy L&H RealSpeak include Edify, Heartland Information Services and
`Transcomputing. L&H cites this immediate demand for the solution as evidence of the overwhelming
`need for high-quality, natural sounding text-to-speech in telecommunications applications.
`L&H has recently put in place a number of leading edge technologies and solutions for the
`telecommunications market, said Gaston Bastiaens, president and CEO of L&H. Our combined
`offerings provide the broadest range of technologies available for telecommunications use today. We
`believe we are well positioned to lead this market and the overwhelmingly positive response we ve
`received affirms this belief.
`In addition to the shipment of its L&H RealSpeak technology, L&H has recently emerged as a
`leading speech and language technology vendor for the telecommunications market by reaching
`a number of strategic milestones over the past several quarters. L&H RealSpeak rounds out the
`company s suite of telephony solutions, extending from a new large vocabulary recognizer to
`small recognizer engines to text to speech technology
` each available for a variety of
`platforms, languages and environments. The combination of these products enables L&H to
`offer a complete solution to telephony developers and vendors looking to voice-enable the next
`generation of call centers, IVR applications and other telephone-based services. Strategic
`alliances with industry-leading companies like Intel, GTE and Motorola have further bolstered
`L&H s position in the telephony market, as has the recent contract to speech-enable Korea s
`largest automated stock quote service through a partnership with Bumil. L&H s RealSpeak
`technology was also named Best of Show during CTI Spring 99, one of the premier events in
`the rapidly growing datacom/telecom convergence industry.
`-MORE -
`
`Parus Exhibit 2038
`Google, et al. v. Parus Holdings, Inc.
`IPR2020-00846
`Page 1 of 3
`
`
`
`L&H RealSpeak Ships
`
`Page 2
`
`The growth of automated services over the telephone is accelerating, paralleling the self-service
`phenomenon of the Internet. This growth has created a demand for better automated voices, and the new
`RealSpeak text-to-speech technology addresses that need, stated William Meisel, president, TMA
`Associates, a speech industry consulting firm in Tarzana, CA.
`According to the company, the natural sounding voice provided by the L&H RealSpeak TTS engine will
`not only enhance end user s experience with speech enabled applications, but will also increase
`application productivity. The applications currently under development include:
`Webley s full-featured unified messaging personal assistant service enables users to make calls and
`send and receive all kinds of messages via the Internet and by phone. Webley is upgrading their
`feature platform with L&H RealSpeak. Its primary application will provide natural sounding voice to
`read aloud users e-mails from any phone. In the near future, L&H RealSpeak will enable Webley
`customers to receive stocks and travel information services as well browse the Web by phone.
`Listening to email over the phone and sending an audio reply is one of Webley s most popular
`features for road Warriors. Up until now customer usage was limited by machine like sounding
`pronunciation. With L&H RealSpeak, we anticipate customers will use this greatly improved feature
`as part of their routine , said Hal Poel, senior vice president marketing, Webley.
`L&H RealSpeak will read aloud voice pages, e-mail and fax messages for the Internet-based
`outbound group messaging service from MessageBlaster!. The MessageBlaster service, which makes
`it possible for on-line users to simultaneously send one or many time-sensitive messages to unlimited
`numbers of people in the way they prefer supports voice, e-mail, pager and fax messaging as well as
`postal mail and overnight delivery.
`4th Peripheral s 4eXtenxa Servers allows consumers and corporate Intranet users to employ
`mobile, land-line phones and personal digital assistants (PDA s) to access Web content.
`4eXtenxa is also used in deploying automated call centers, IVR systems, and other
`telephony-to-web infrastructure.
`About Webley Systems, Inc.
`Webley Systems is a leader in Unified Communications and Messaging due to its
` natural speech recognition driven personal assistant, Webley. Webley is a fully featured Personal
`Assistant integrating customers Messages over the phone and Internet. The feature set include voice-
`activated dialing, follow me service via one number, conference calling, fax mailbox, and the capability
`to allow users to listen to e-mail over the phone. Via a personal web page, customers can upload their
`contact lists automatically from their PIM and retrieve messages. Webley markets directly under it s own
`brand and provides private label functionality to all types of service providers. Webley, a privately held
`company is based in Deerfield, Illinois and can be found at www.Webley.com.
`About MessageBlaster!
`MessageBlaster.com provides a unique network service in the emerging field of Internet based
`outbound group messaging. The first of its kind communications service makes it possible for
`on-line users to simultaneously send one-to-many time-sensitive messages to unlimited
`numbers of people in the way they prefer e-mail, voice pager, fax, postal mail overnight
`delivery. It also allows users to track the receipt of messages and receive recipient responses.
`The service is targeted at small-to-medium sized businesses that lack both human and network
`resources. Founded in 1998, MessageBlaster.com is based in Billerica Massachusetts and can
`be found on the Web at http://www.messageblaster.com.
`
`- More -
`
`Parus Exhibit 2038, Page 2 of 3
`
`
`
`L&H RealSpeak Ships
`
`Page 3
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`About 4th Peripheral
`4th Peripheral Technologies is a CyberExtension company. The company focuses on extending
`and integrating the Internet, intranets, and data warehouses by providing remote access from
`handheld devices (wireless telephone, land-line telephone, PDA, etc.) using the company s
`proprietary 4eXtenxa voice-product family. For more information, please visit 4th Peripheral at
`http://www.gofourth.com/
`About Lernout & Hauspie
`Lernout & Hauspie (L&H) is a global leader in advanced speech and language solutions for vertical
`markets, computers, automobiles, telecommunications, embedded products, consumer goods and the
`Internet. The company is making the speech user interface (SUI) the keystone of simple, convenient
`interaction between humans and technology, and is using advanced translation technology to break down
`language barriers. The company provides a wide range of offerings, including: customized solutions for
`corporations; core speech technologies marketed to OEMs; end user and retail applications for continuous
`speech products in horizontal and vertical markets; and document creation, human and machine
`translation services, Internet translation offerings, and linguistic tools. L&H s products and services
`originate in four basic areas: automatic speech recognition (ASR), text-to-speech (TTS), digital speech
`and music compression (SMC) and text-to-text (translation). For more information, please visit Lernout &
`Hauspie on the World Wide Web at www.lhs.com or www.lhsl.com.
`This Press Release contains forward-looking information, including but not limited to statements
`involving L&H s view of the evolution of speech and language technology in the healthcare industry, that
`L&H s products will work according to specifications and that such products will be successful in the
`market, and that its partnerships will be successful. Factors which could cause material differences to
`these forward looking statements include known and unknown risks, including without limitation: the
`uncertainty of new product development, including the risk that newly introduced products may contain
`undetected errors or defects or otherwise not perform as anticipated, the early stage of development of the
`speech and language technology markets, uncertainty of market growth, rapid technological change and
`intense competition, as well as other risks set forth in L&H s filings with the Securities and Exchange
`Commission. L&H cautions readers not to place undue reliance upon any such forward-looking
`statements, which speak only as of the date made. L&H expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking
`to release publicly any updates or revisions to any such statements to reflect any change in the L&H s
`expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstance on which any such statement is based.
`###
`All product names and trademarks mentioned herein are trademarks of L&H and its respective owners.
`
`L&H Contact Info:
`Worldwide PR/IR: Ellen Spooren, Lernout & Hauspie, (781) 203-5344, espooren@lhsl.com
`Corporate Comm. US: Audrey Pobre, Lernout & Hauspie, (781) 203-5341, apobre@lhsl.com
`Media Contact Europe: Vanessa Richter, Lernout & Hauspie, (32) 57-22-9518, vrichter@lhsl.com
`Investor Contact Europe: Annemieke Blondeel, Lommaert & Blondeel Consultants, (44) 1322-20-180,
`a.blondeel@dial.pipex.com
`
`
`
`Parus Exhibit 2038, Page 3 of 3
`
`