RFID Patents - Taking Steps to Protect Your Company

Filed in archive Patents on August 23, 2005

Last week I brought you a roundup of posts describing the RFID patent pool formed by 20 companies.

The patent pool leaves a big question unanswered: should your company move forward with an RFID deployment, or hold off because of the legal uncertainty surrounding the patent issues?

This interesting article in RFID Product News, by an intellectual property attorney, begins to answer this question. Attorney Ken Adler outlines steps companies should take to protect themselves from getting embroiled in RFID patent disputes:

When a company makes the decision to implement an RFID solution, there are certain steps that it should consider to mitigate the risk of intellectual property infringement. Consider developing an RFID checklist that contains the basics of any RFID solution, such as each piece of equipment and each of the RFID applications that will be utilized for interoperability and functionality. For major components in the RFID solution, a purchaser can request that the supplier identify the owner of any intellectual property for each component and include language in the purchase agreement in which the supplier confirms that all royalty payments have been made and that the supplier has the authority to permit the use of the equipment and software that it provides. * * *

Another effective way to mitigate the risks of intellectual property infringements stemming from implementation of RFID solutions is to procure appropriate contractual protection in the form of an intellectual property indemnification from the RFID suppliers.

Read the whole thing. This article comes the closest of anything I've found so far in giving practical guidance for companies faced with this dilemma.

Tags: RFID; Business; Law