MURRAY HILL, N.J. -- Lucent Technologies (NYSE: LU) today announced that Jan M.K. Jaferian, an executive with extensive experience creating and managing corporate intellectual property programs, has joined the company as Intellectual Property Business President, effective immediately.

Jaferian, 54, was most recently a vice president and general manager of Xerox Corporation's Intellectual Property Operations, where she was responsible for developing intellectual property strategies and policies to ensure growth, competitiveness and profitable commercialization of its patent portfolio.

Jaferian will report to Bill O'Shea, Bell Labs President and Lucent's Executive Vice President of Corporate Strategy, and be responsible for protecting, enhancing and generating value from Lucent's Intellectual Property assets, which includes Lucent's extensive portfolio of nearly 14,000 active patents worldwide.

"Lucent's Intellectual Property Business and the rich innovation heritage of Bell Labs continue to be strong competitive advantages for Lucent," said O'Shea. "As we seek to improve our profitable revenue growth, maximizing the value of our IP assets remains critical."

Jaferian will lead a global, integrated team of legal, licensing and technology professionals focused on securing patents for Lucent's inventions and protecting the company's intellectual property rights. Jaferian and her team will also support the efforts of Lucent's other business units to capitalize on licensing opportunities.

Jaferian comes to Lucent with more than 25 years of experience in the intellectual property field. She has an extensive track record of generating revenues from intellectual property across industry and geographical lines, and has been very successful in assessing and negotiating technology transfer licenses, identifying, qualifying, and settling patent infringement cases, and administering contracts.

Lucent Technologies Inc.