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Alcatel-Lucent appoints Craig Thompson to lead Intellectual Property unit
[November 09, 2012]

Alcatel-Lucent appoints Craig Thompson to lead Intellectual Property unit


(ENP Newswire Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) ENP Newswire - 09 November 2012 Release date- 08112012 - Paris - Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) has appointed Craig Thompson to lead a new business unit managing one of the world's largest portfolios of intellectual property assets as a dedicated profit center.



With more than 29,000 issued patents, and several thousand patent applications filed each year, the new unit will be key in Alcatel-Lucent's new operating model, announced on September 10, 2012 and designed to facilitate delivery of The Performance Program, the strategic initiative to generate Euro 1.25 billion of cost savings by the end of 2013.

Mr. Thompson will take up his new position on December 3, 2012, joining Alcatel-Lucent from Nokia where he served as Vice-President of Legal and Intellectual Property affairs of the company's mobile phone business, having originally joined Nokia's IPR team in 2004.


In his role as Senior Vice-President of Intellectual Property at Alcatel-Lucent, Mr. Thompson will report to Jeong Kim, President of Bell Labs, who commented: 'We are thrilled to have Craig on board to lead the new business unit we have created to generate additional value from our extremely strong patent portfolio. Appointing an executive of Craig's caliber is a strong statement of our commitment to leveraging the significant market interest in our intellectual property, and he will be instrumental in converting that interest into a meaningful revenue stream.' Mr. Thompson has been a practicing lawyer for 18 years, and brings to Alcatel-Lucent extensive global intellectual property licensing experience and a deep knowledge of the mobile communications and consumer electronics businesses.

Mr. Thompson holds a law degree from the Columbia University School of Law in New York and a Masters of Law from the University of Helsinki in Finland.

In his new role at Alcatel-Lucent Mr. Thompson will oversee the company's world-class patent portfolio, one of the largest in the telecom industry, and which includes issued and pending patents encompassing a broad range of technologies, including fixed-line and 3G and 4G wireless communications, semiconductors, consumer electronics, multimedia, optical transmission, software, cloud computing, applications and network security.

About Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) The long-trusted partner of service providers, enterprises and governments around the world, Alcatel-Lucent is a leading innovator in the field of networking and communications technology, products and services. The company is home to Bell Labs, one of the world's foremost research centers, responsible for breakthroughs that have shaped the networking and communications industry. Alcatel-Lucent was named one of MIT Technology Review's 2012 Top 50 list of the 'World's Most Innovative Companies' for breakthroughs such as lightRadio, which cuts power consumption and operating costs on wireless networks while delivering lightning fast Internet access. Through such innovations, Alcatel-Lucent is making communications more sustainable, more affordable and more accessible as we pursue our mission - Realizing the Potential of a Connected World.

With operations in more than 130 countries and one of the most experienced global services organizations in the industry, Alcatel-Lucent is a local partner with global reach. The Company achieved revenues of Euro 15.3 billion in 2011 and is incorporated in France and headquartered in Paris.

For more information, visit Alcatel-Lucent on: http://www.alcatel-lucent.com, read the latest posts on the Alcatel-Lucent blog: http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/blog and follow the Company on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Alcatel_Lucent.

Contact the Alcatel-Lucent Press Office:[email protected] [Editorial queries for this story should be sent to [email protected]] ((Comments on this story may be sent to [email protected])) (c) 2012 Electronic News Publishing -

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