Cardinal Brands and Mi-Co Sign Strategic Alliance to Empower Digital Ink Application Developers

Lawrence, KS and Research Triangle Park, NC. May 11 2005. Mi-Co, the mobile data capture company, today announced a strategic alliance with Cardinal Brands, the largest supplier of off-the-shelf business forms sold at retail in the U.S. The alliance will allow developers and organizations using digital ink and Anoto technology greater flexibility.

Anoto functionality allows an individual to fill out a paper form with a Digital Pen, dock that pen to a personal computer and Mi-Co software interprets the digital ink and turns the ink into machine readable data, eliminating additional data entry.

The strategic alliance between Mi-Co and Cardinal Brands includes the development of a software developer’s kit incorporating Mi-Co and Cardinal patent pending technology that allows for an organization to painlessly associate new handwritten information on Anoto functionality paper forms with a specific record in a database.

Currently, using Digital Pens and Digital Ink technology, enterprise users complete paper forms and send this information to back end databases. Using the new technology, users can add digital ink to existing database records at the lowest possible price point.

”We are extremely pleased to partner with Mi-Co in this effort to reduce printing costs and increase the power of the Anoto functionality,” said Mike Miller, Vice President and General Manager, Custom Solutions Division, Cardinal Brands. “Digital paper costs and software licensing costs for systems that prefill forms have been a barrier to widespread adoption of digital writing, and we are excited to partner with Mi-Co to begin to reduce the barriers.”

“Organizations driving efficiency and increasing the quality of data captured on paper forms will be able to extend the use of this technology into new applications,” stated Greg Clary, Mi-Co CTO. “We have achieved a very user friendly way to associate new handwritten information with existing database records, while leveraging the superior printing capabilities of Cardinal Brands.”

About Cardinal Brands
Cardinal Brands, Inc. is a leading designer, developer and manufacturer of high quality business, consumer and hobby products. The company’s products are sold primarily under the brand names Adams, Cardinal, Globe-Weis, Generations, and Write 'n Stick, and are distributed through a network of leading retailers, wholesalers, contract stationers and dealers.
The history of the individual brands demonstrates a long tradition of pioneering design, with many product advances documented before the turn of the 20th century. Today, Cardinal Brands, Inc. continues to focus on the development of innovative solutions for the workplace, school and home.
About Mi-Co
Mi-Co, the mobile data capture company, provides digital writing software that enables an efficient and effective process for capturing and communicating handwritten data. Mi-Co’s enterprise Mi-Forms Software System enables flexible e-forms design for data capture using digital ink. In addition, Mi-Forms Software has proven capabilities for handwriting interpretation, verification, data validation and communication of forms-based data for enterprise users. Mi-Forms supports Tablet PCs, Digital Pens, Pocket PCs and signature capture devices. Mi-Co is headquartered in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina and has a Washington customer service center. For more information on Mi-Co, visit www.mi-corporation.com.