Japonica Protects Top Quartile Hurdle Rate Intellectual Property

----Entrepreneurial Co-Investment Structure Offers Granular Stratification of Relative Performance--

Dateline: Providence, Rhode Island USA, November 16, 2005

Japonica Partners protects its Top Quartile Hurdle Rate Intellectual Property by filing a utility patent with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Japonica’s patent-pending structure offers co-investors alternatives at a granular level of stratification relative to performance benchmarks.

“The co-investment structure bases investment manager compensation solely on excess profits, actually cultivating entrepreneurial returns,” commented Japonica Partners Founder & Managing Director Paul B. Kazarian. “In particular, the best entrepreneurial investment managers, singularly focused on achieving excess profit with respect to a top quartile benchmark, excel with the co-investment structure.”

Japonica’s patent-pending structure is an entrepreneurial solution to the conundrum faced by pioneering portfolio managers in identifying top quartile investment managers and linking pay to performance.

“Success in the marketplace is indicia of non-obviousness,” commented George Chaclas, an intellectual property attorney with Boston-based Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge LLP. “The patent office will consider commercial success during its examination.”

Japonica’s patent is titled “Co-Investment Structure with Multi-Option Hurdle Rate Alternatives for Performance Based Asset Allocation.”