Uniloc

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Uniloc Corporation was incorporated in Australia in 1992. It is the assignee via a subsidiary in Singapore (Uniloc Pte) of the first major patent US 5,490,216 in the field of software Activation and Try and Buy Software.

In 1993 it entered into an agreement with IBM for the worldwide marketing rights for the technology and proceeded to distribute Try and Buy enabled versions of software for multiple publishers via its association with IBM.

An initial success in the development of Try and Buy distribution was the sale of thousands of software packages distributed on the front cover of Windows Sources magazine in 1994. The product was First Aid, developed by Cybermedia.

Later Uniloc entered into an agreement with US magazine publisher Ziff Davis Licensee APN in Australia for the distribution of unlockable versions of software on the front cover of their magazines including Windows Magazine.

In 1997 a subsidiary was set up in the US called Uniloc PC Preload to produce preloaded unlockable editions of popular software products on new PCs. Distribution agreements were executed with eMachines and Toshiba. Family PC magazine also produced two months of magazines featuring unlockable software from Uniloc PC Prelaod on the cover in 2001.

In 2003, Uniloc Corporation set up a US subsidiary called Uniloc USA, Inc representing its patent interests in the United States in Rhode Island. The company also has a Californian office. The company has secured the services of legal firm Mintz Levin Boston to represent its interests. The company is currently licensing its patented technology to software publishers and entertainment companies including Sony.