WASHINGTON-A settlement of a radio frequency identification patent lawsuit involving two leaders in the automated data capture business could remove a major obstacle to success in the emerging wireless space, but privacy, security and other issues remain.
In addition to agreeing to settle a pending RFID patent suit in September, Intermec Technologies Inc. and Symbol Technologies Inc. consented to put on hold all other pending and anticipated legal actions while they try to resolve their remaining intellectual property disputes.
Intermec last year filed a patent infringement suit against Matrics Corp., now Symbol Technologies, related to Intermec’s RFID patents.
Under the accord between the two companies, Symbol also agreed to join Intermec’s Rapid Start RFID intellectual property licensing program. The program gives Symbol access to various Intermec RFID patent portfolios, including RFID tags and fixed and portable readers. In return, Symbol is providing Intermec access to Symbol’s RFID intellectual property by exercising the cross-licensing provisions of the Rapid Start program. Intermec, meanwhile, will file for dismissal of its RFID lawsuit in the Delaware district court.
“I think it’s an interesting way to proceed. Clearly, it must have had a lot to do with the business environment in which they operate,” said Lee Bromberg, whose Boston law firm specializes in high-tech intellectual property law.
Bromberg said the evolution of RFID patents does not necessarily follow other high-tech sectors. In this case, Bromberg pointed out that innovations ferment in the RFID industry and are created by a bunch of relatively small companies, all trying to please the big retail driver: Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Then there are the ambitious plans for RFID in the federal government, particularly at the Department of Defense, the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security and the Food and Drug Administration.
Bromberg said the addition of Symbol to Intermec’s Rapid Start RFID IP licensing program enlarges the patent pool such that other litigation-minded RFID vendors might be dissuaded from going to federal court and instead be more inclined to join the others. That is, if they have something to offer. “It doesn’t mean they’re going to let everyone else into the pool,” said Bromberg.
Bromberg said stabilizing the RFID patent regime will go a long way to easing the comfort level of retailers, manufacturers and government agencies that plan to exploit RFID technology for everything from inventory management to ensuring food safety to curbing counterfeit drugs to keeping terrorists from entering U.S. territory.
“Your patent fights tend to take place on the sidelines, but otherwise customers get nervous about their potential [legal] exposure,” said Bromberg. There also is the issue of achieving a price point for RFID tags that is economically acceptable to major suppliers.
Meantime, RFID technology continues to incite controversy in terms of whether it poses a threat to personal privacy. While RFID backers insist such fears are overblown and that voluntary steps will be taken to protect personal information, some policy-makers, particularly at the state level, still have their doubts.
Lawmakers in California and several other states either are pushing bills or contemplating legislation that would establish limits on RFID deployment. Such is the case in a bill in California where RFID legislation was passed by the Senate, only to stall in the Assembly before the close of the legislative session early last month. The measure-authored by Sen. Joe Simitian (D)-would have prohibited contactless integrated circuits in state government-issued driver’s licenses, healthcare benefit cards, library cards and student identification cards.
The Simitian legislation is apt to resurface in 2006.
On the federal front, the Government Accountability Office last month said the Pentagon faces a variety of challenges in carrying out a comprehensive RFID strategy intended to improve the department’s lackluster record of tracking and identifying inventory.
In the global arena, Bush administration officials and tech firms from the United States and overseas recently completed discussions in Brussels, Belgium, with European counterparts to discuss various RFID issues, including data privacy and security and how to promote responsibly RFID technology worldwide.
