Digimarc awarded $16 million driver license program by Canada’s four Atlantic provinces
09 August, 2006
category: Government
Four Canadian provinces have tapped Digimarc’s Canada operation to deploy and maintain a digital driver’s license issuance program. The USD $16 million contract will run through mid-2014 and will also help facilitate citizen identification and access to various social privileges and services within the country.
Beaverton, Ore.–Digimarc Corporation announced its Canadian-based operation, Digimarc ID Systems Canada Co., has won four new customers – the four Provinces of Canada’s Atlantic region – under contracts valued at an estimated USD $16 million (CDN $18 Million) to develop, deploy and maintain a new secure digital driver license issuance solution for the region.
With a phased implementation schedule for each Province, the contracts run through August 31, 2014. Atlantic Canada comprises Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland and Labrador. The Atlantic Provinces span 538,720 square kilometers (208,000 square miles) of a diverse population that utilizes the government-issued driver license as a primary element of citizen identity, within the Provinces and across Canada.
The new Digimarc-designed Atlantic Canada driver license will utilize the same sophisticated secure design across all four Provinces and help facilitate citizen identification and access to various social privileges and services within Canada.
Atlantic Canada Ministers responsible for motor vehicle registration, New Brunswick’s Wayne Steeves, Newfoundland and Labrador’s Dianne Whalen, Nova Scotia’s Jamie Muir and Prince Edward Island’s Gail Shea, today indicated that they are pleased to enter into these contracts.
“While each province has separate jurisdiction for issuing driver licenses and photo identification, we also look to work cooperatively with each other where it is feasible to do so and provide more efficient services to the public. As we look to take advantage of economies of scale through joint procurement of these services, Digimarc’s team clearly demonstrated its product, solution, security features, delivery and customer support leadership, making it our most favored choice for Atlantic Canada.”
“We are thrilled to add the Atlantic Canada region to the growing list of North American customers who rely on Digimarc to supply the highest value secure solutions for driver licenses and other citizen identification programs,” said Robert Eckel, president, government programs, Digimarc Corporation. “Bringing a new secure driver license system to the region will help the Provinces address the problem of identity theft and fraud, and facilitate citizen access to Canadian services and privileges.”
Digimarc will now work closely with driver license issuing officials of the region to assist in the final selection of a range of market-leading security features such as digital watermarks and other anti-counterfeiting techniques, card design, and advanced identity verification solutions designed to help deter identity fraud during driver license enrollment. Rollout of the new system is scheduled to begin in the fall of 2006.
About Digimarc
Digimarc Corporation, based in Beaverton, Oregon, is a leading supplier of secure identity and media management solutions. Digimarc provides products and services that enable the annual production of more than 60 million personal identification documents, including two-thirds of U.S. driver licenses and IDs for more than 20 countries. Digimarc ID Systems Canada Co. currently provides products and services for two Canadian provinces. Digimarc’s digital watermarking technology provides a persistent digital identity for various media content and is used to enhance the security of financial documents, identity documents and digital images, and support other media rights management applications.
Digimarc has an extensive intellectual property portfolio, with more than 275 issued U.S. patents with more than 5,000 claims, and more than 500 pending patent applications in digital watermarking, personal identification and related technologies. The Company is headquartered in Beaverton, Oregon, with other U.S. offices in Burlington, Massachusetts; Fort Wayne, Indiana; and the Washington DC area; and international offices in London and Mexico. Please go to www.digimarc.com for more company information.