Search the archive: |
| | |
It's perhaps long overdue, and welcomed by many: A group of RFID-related companies intends to form an intellectual property (IP) licensing consortium to offer both an efficient patent management approach for patent holders and convenient access to RFID patents for manufacturers and end-users.
The group is also calling for other companies or individuals holding essential RFID patents to join the proposed consortium. Recognising that the IP landscape for RFID is highly complex (not to mention 'grey' in many areas), and that there are numerous important patent holders, the companies have developed the new RFID patent consortium.
The RFID Consortium is modelled on the successful patent licensing consortium formed and implemented for technologies in the MPEG-2 and DVD industries. As with those models, the RFID consortium aims to provide a structured approach for holders of essential RFID patents to receive fair compensation for those patents, at a reasonable cost to the end-user. This approach should provide competitive benefits by integrating complementary technologies and reducing transaction costs, the group says. It also offers an alternative to individual licensing agreements.
Fair licensing
The consortium says it will license patents that are essential to the commercially viable operation and manufacture of RFID chips, tags or labels, and readers. Such consolidated licensing would enable the use of broad-based technologies covered by the many patents owned by diverse patent holders.
For example, MPEG-2 video decoding and DVD format are two technologies that enjoy widespread availability and industry interoperability as a result of similar patent portfolio licensing arrangements. This approach is expected to benefit end-users while relieving patent holders of the need to manage potentially hundreds of licensing agreements with individual licensees.
Supporting EPC and ISO
Kevin Ashton, designated spokesperson for the consortium and vice president of ThingMagic, explained: "The group of companies that have come together to support the consortium believe that an essential patent portfolio license is the most effective approach for assuring access to the intellectual property necessary for RFID to be successfully and widely implemented in the marketplace."
The consortium will be based on, and supportive of, the standards and specifications announced by EPCglobal as well as the ISO's counterpart proposed standards. The consortium will be open to all patent holders, regardless of whether they were involved in the development of those standards. The involved companies intend to submit their plan for the RFID licensing consortium to the US Department of Justice for formal business review.
Intermec missing?
Companies that have signed term sheets to become members of the consortium so far include: Alien Technology Corporation, Applied Wireless Identification Group Inc., Avery Dennison Corporation, Moore Wallace, Symbol Technologies Inc., ThingMagic Inc., Tyco Fire & Security, and Zebra Technologies Corporation. Other companies supporting the consortium include Magellan Technology Pty Ltd., Precisia LLC, and Printronix Inc.
As ABI Research noted, Intermec Technologies is notable by its absence from the list of supporters. The company has long been at loggerheads with end users and other industry players over its tight control over licensing of a number of key RFID patents it holds.
Erik Michielsen, ABI Research's director of RFID and ubiquitous technologies, keenly supports the idea of the consortium: "Regardless of how Intermec's IP issues are resolved, there are dozens of other IP holders in the market that are looking to profit from EPC Gen 2 licensing. They spent large amounts of money on R&D and they want to be rewarded for that investment. Because of the number and disparity of such patents, the industry - in the absence of a process like the one now beginning - would be heading for stagnation and quagmire."
According to Michielsen, some questions remain: One is the role of silicon manufacturers (such as Texas Instruments and Philips) - as-yet not represented in the list of charter consortium members - and the other question is raised by Intermec's absence: would the absence of its 140+ patents from the consortium's license plans significantly reduce the consortium's effectiveness? The answer, it seems, is "no". Michielsen concluded: "With or without Intermec, the number of patent negotiations will be reduced from potentially hundreds down to a handful. If need be, companies can still address Intermec licensing on a one-to-one basis. The market will still move forward more quickly."
Sources: RFID Consortium; ABI Research
|
