The TPL Group Names F. Eric Saunders Chief Counsel for Intellectual Property (IP) and Dennis Miller Vice President of IP Development Engineering

-The TPL Group today announced that F. Eric Saunders Esq. has been named vice president and chief counsel for Intellectual Property (IP) reporting to chairman Dan Leckrone. In a related announcement, Dennis Miller was appointed vice president of IP development engineering reporting to Saunders.

"We've come to appreciate Eric's IP acumen over the years he has consulted with us," said Leckrone. "We're delighted that he has joined our team full time to guide TPL and its enterprise companies on IP law during a very exciting growth phase." He noted that Miller, who now reports to Saunders, moves to his new post from another TPL enterprise, IntellaSys, where he served as VP of device architecture/engineering of the design center based in Tempe Arizona. "On behalf of our IntellaSys enterprise, I want to thank Dennis for his diligent work in establishing and expanding the Tempe design center over the past two years," added Leckrone.

About F. Eric Saunders Esq.

Before joining TPL, Saunders was a partner in Henneman & Saunders, specialists in high-tech IP litigation and patent prosecution, which served TPL as one of its clients. With more than 30 years of practical experience in computer hardware and software technologies, he has focused on patent prosecution within semiconductor, laser, multimedia and Internet disciplines. He holds a J.D. degree from the University of California, Hastings College of Law, and has been admitted to the California Bar and US District Court for the Northern District of California as well as the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Saunders studied in the Doctoral Program at the University of California, Berkeley School of Business, and has lectured on IP law at both San Francisco State and San Jose State Universities.

About Dennis Miller

Miller assumes his new role following a two-year tenure with IntellaSys, another TPL enterprise, where he was instrumental in establishing the chip maker's design center in Tempe, Arizona. His 30 years high-tech experience spans semiconductor architecture, design, layout, testing, firmware development, manufacturing, and product engineering working with major chip makers such as Intel, IBM and Philips Semiconductors as well as with smaller companies such as VLSI Technology, Gigabit Logic and Burr Brown. Miller studied physics and electrical engineering at DeVry Institute of Technology, leaving early 1972 for military service in the US Coast Guard. While serving with the USCG, he supervised shipboard NavCom installations and managed the Seattle District NavCom Electronics Group which made operational the first Puget Sound Vessel Traffic System RADAR network.

About The TPL Group

Founded in 1988, the Silicon Valley based TPL Group has emerged as a coalition of high technology enterprises involved in intellectual property development and management as well as the fabless development of system-on-chip solutions for distributed digital media processing applications. For more information, visit www.tplgroup.net.