Intermec Moves on Intellectual Property Issue

Filed in archive EPC Standards on November 5, 2004

Intermec has announced that "it would suspend for 60 days its intellectual property (IP) licenses to stimulate RFID manufacturers to create and test systems. A next-generation standard to allow any tag to talk to any reader was approved last month by a group of retailers and consumer-goods companies, EPC Global, but royalty payments on Intermec's 14 patents were seen as a hindrance to adoption." That's according to an article by Susan Shor in TechNewsWorld.

Intermec's move has cleared the path -- at least partially -- for companies to move toward wide-scale adoption of the second generation standard proposed by EPCglobal.

What's puzzling about this announcement is the 60-day time limit. Here's what a Yankee Group spokesman, Mike Dominy is reported to have said about it:

"The 60-day window gives other technology vendors the opportunity to submit their Gen2 products for testing," Dominy said. "A key question is what happens after 60 days. My sense is that vendors that cannot demonstrate Gen2 products before the 60 day window will need to license IP from Intermec."