Innovation provides decisive advantages for the global offshore economy

Dresden, 5 February 2014

As of 7 January 2014 the GICON®-SOF Floating Offshore Foundation is a patented invention in the USA. The United States Patent and Trademark Office issued certificate number 8,622,011 B2 entitled ‘Floating
foundation supporting framework with buoyancy components, having an open-relief design‘ that protects
the intellectual property of the invention in the US market. Patents already exist in Europe. The GICON®-SOF is patented until 7 July 2017 with an extended protection running until 8 January 2029.

"The USA will be one of the leading markets for offshore wind development in
the future. Therefore, it is an important step for GICON to achieve patent
protection for our SOF in the US market. We are very pleased by this
development and continue to strengthen our position as a major technology
developer and provider in the market for floating offshore foundations," GICON's
CEO Prof. Jochen Grossmann said.

The GICON® SOF Floating Offshore Foundation is an exceptional innovation and
provides new opportunities for offshore wind park development. It offers various
advantages compared to ordinary offshore foundations as the SOF can be
deployed in both shallow water (from 65 ft. (20m) onwards) and deep water (up
to 1640 ft. (500m)). Furthermore, the fully-assembled structure including
mounted turbine can be towed to the deployment location leading to a more
cost-effective and less weather dependent installation. Tests show that the
GICON® SOF is as stable as a conventional, bottom mounted offshore wind
foundation. The construction and deployment of a full-scale model is planned for
2014/2015.

The GICON Group's 300 full-time employees across 12 group companies, 16 offices and 5 countries make
GICON one of the largest, privately owned engineering companies in Germany with a global client base
and projects in more than 25 countries. GICON® is a registered trade mark in Europe, the United States,
China, Canada, Korea and various Central Asian countries.

More information
http://www.uspto.gov (full details of the patent can be accessed using the search function)
http://www.gicon.de/en/geschaeftsbereiche/gte/sof.html
http://www.youtube.com/GiconGroup (contains videos of the GICON® SOF)