Open Text Livelink Search Technology to Power Patent Database Solutions from Microsoft Corporation and Derwent Information

Waterloo, ON - 1996-10-29 - Open Text Corporation (OTEX:NASDAQ) of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada today announced that a superset of the technology that is currently available in its Livelink Search textual search and retrieval product will be a key part of a new generation of powerful and flexible full patent database products, to be developed by Microsoft Corporation and Derwent Information.

Derwent Information will take the lead in incorporating Open Text's search technology and the Microsoft® Windows NT® operating system into a powerful and flexible full patent database designed to meet the needs of both novice and experienced patent searchers, who want to use client/server technology or the Internet for sharing patent information within their organizations.

The first product from the agreement is expected to be commercially available in the first quarter of 1997. Derwent Information, a division of The Thomson Corporation providing international patent and scientific information across the world for more than 40 years, is the industry leader in the provision of international patent information.

"We expect the specific databases to be very large and composed of structured languages, SGML and HTML, requiring an industrial strength search engine capable of rapidly searching very large numbers of documents in a structured manner, allowing users to search by title, first paragraph, etc." said Tom Jenkins, President and CEO of Open Text Corporation. "The search technology that will be included in these products powers our Livelink Search product, which recently took top honors in Computerworld's review of intranet-ready search engines. So this is another significant OEM integration of our technology," added Jenkins. "Livelink Search forms a key component of our intranet application suite - Livelink Intranet - which we are currently marketing, and we stand ready to assist Derwent with their customers who choose a full-featured, intranet-based patent database solution in future."

The agreement marks the third announcement in as many weeks of wins by Open Text where the firm's pre-eminent textual search and retrieval technology has been chosen for use in database indexing and search solutions, including ones to be offered by Medical Economics of Montvale, New Jersey and the United States Government Printing Office in Washington, DC.

Release Disclaimer

This news release may contain forward-looking statements relating to the future performance of Open Text Corporation. Forward-looking statements, specifically those concerning future performance, are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially. These risks and uncertainties are detailed from time to time in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including the final prospectus for the company's initial public offering of common stock in January 1996, Form 10-K for the year ended June 30, 1997, and Form 10-Q for the quarters ended September 30, 1997, and December 31, 1997. Note to Editors: Livelink Pinstripe, Livelink 8, Livelink Search, Livelink Library, Livelink Workflow and Livelink Project Collaboration are trademarks of Open Text Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective companies.

For more information, please contact

Margaret E. Dobbin
Director, Industry Analyst Relations
Open Text Corporation
+1-519-888-7111 ext.2410
mdobbin@opentext.com