NLG.L Regulatory News (NLG)

4 August 2015

Arria NLG plc ("Arria" or the "Company")

Grant of US patent on Arria's Configurable Microplanner,

a key element of NLG Systems

Arria NLG plc (AIM:NLG), a technology leader in Natural Language Generation ("NLG"), is pleased to announce that it has received notice from the United States Patent and Trademark Office that its application for a patent on its configurable Microplanner will be granted. The inventor under the patent is Arria's Chief Scientist, Prof. Ehud Reiter. The configurable Microplanner is a key element of the Arria NLG Software Engine™, achieving a greater level of fluency and articulacy than the Directors of Arria believe is possible using less advanced NLG architectures. The Microplanner is directly configurable via the specification of rules dictating how sentences should be compiled from component words, phrases and context.

To be granted a patent for software, the patent application had to overcome objections based on a 2014 US Supreme Court case holding that the mere computer implementation of a business method is unpatentable. The US patent examiner has judged Arria's "Method and Apparatus for Configurable Microplanning" to be an innovation that contributes to the field of computer science. The innovations underlying this and Arria's two other US patents enhance the quality and authority of the plain English narratives being written by the Arria NLG Software Engine without human intervention.

Arria's patents and patent applications cover key NLG processes that the Company currently applies in weather reporting, oil & gas production, agronomy, aviation, travel, financial services and insurance. Arria's expanding patent portfolio brings additional strength to its plan to become the global leader in automating the analysis and writing of reports on big data generated throughout today's economy.

Prof. Ehud Reiter, Chief Scientist of Arria, commented: "This new patent protects a key part of the automation of the Natural Language Generation process that we believe significantly distinguishes our software from other players in the field. Older NLG models depend on two distinct processes: content determination (including data analysis) followed by linguistic rendering. Arria's Microplanning technology links them, affording a degree of control and flexibility that allows the Arria NLG Software Engine to create significantly more articulate reports and narratives."

Stuart Rogers, Chairman and Chief Executive of Arria, stated: "With numerous additional patent applications currently filed and pending, this third US patent to be granted to Arria is part of a continuous stream of patentable innovations that Arria's science and engineering teams are producing. Arria's successful patenting programme confirms the Company as a leader in marketplace applications of NLG science. With Arria's help, machines are acquiring the artificial intelligence that allows them to generate and communicate language the way humans do, taking us far beyond templated scripts with dropped-in variables to a realm where our software can reason and communicate with the accuracy and authority of the expert, engineer or analyst whose tasks it automates."

For further information, please visit www.arria.com or contact: