British Inventor Wins Top Prizes with Design Using CATIA V5

PARIS, France, March 20, 2006 - Dassault Systèmes (DS) (Nasdaq: DASTY; Euronext Paris: #13065, DSY.PA), a world leader in 3D and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions, today announced that the top two awards at the prestigious British Female Inventor & Innovator of the Year Forum in London have been won by an inventor who designed and developed her innovative idea entirely on CATIA V5, Dassault Systèmes’ world class solution for designing the virtual product.

Morag Hutcheon, co-founder of the design consultancy Quadro, was named Female Inventor of the Year for her innovative ‘pre.vu’ product, which offers a 60-second high-quality soundbite through a speaker small enough to fit into a CD case, giving the record-buying public a chance to sample new releases in the shop. The idea, which also won the Product Development of the Year award, came to Hutcheon while browsing CDs herself: “I thought it would be great if I could pick them up and hear a quick sample of the songs,” she noted.

Hutcheon’s idea was developed using CATIA V5, enabling her to virtually simulate the product’s look, as well as fine-tune its technology. Quadro was an early adopter of CATIA V5 and Managing Director Phil Gray is in no doubt that the solution was key in pre.vu’s development. “CATIA V5 is the world’s best surfacing tool,” he states, unequivocally. “It has a level of integrity which lets us conceive our ideas on screen and take them seamlessly through to manufacture.”

Although developed with the music industry in mind, pre.vu has potential markets in other sectors, such as greetings card and gift retailers, florists and mobile network providers. Quadro has already received enquiries from a wide range of industries, and believes the device’s flexibility and quick adaptation to customer’s needs make it a highly marketable product.

Quadro is supported by Allied, a DS business partner in the UK.