Intermec temporarily suspends RFID IP licensing policy to facilitate adoption of EPCglobal Generation 2 RFID Standard
Nov. 4, 2004
Intermec Technologies Corp. and EPCglobal Inc. have announced today that Intermec has offered to temporarily suspend its recently announced RFID intellectual property RAND (reasonable and non-discriminatory) licensing program for the EPCglobal Generation 2 RFID standard for 60 days to allow validation of the candidate specification.The action clears the way for technology providers to submit UHF Generation 2 prototype chips, tags and readers for purposes of testing by EPCglobal without violating Intermec intellectual property rights."This spirit of collaboration is exactly what the EPCglobal community and marketplace needs," said Dick Cantwell, chairman of the EPCglobal board of governors. "The industry is eager for the release of a common specification that will drive this emerging market forward. Today's announcement confirms that the process is continuing, the issues are being addressed, and progress is being made."The UHF Generation 2 standard is a foundational element in the continued build-out of the EPCglobal Network, a network that combines RFID technology, the Internet and the EPC (electronic product code) to provide visibility of information throughout supply chains.Intermec provides global supply chain management solutions with the development, manufacture and integration of wired and wireless automated data collection, radio frequency identification (RFID), mobile computing systems, bar code printers and label media.EPCglobal Inc., a joint venture between EAN International and the Uniform Code Council, Inc., is a not-for-profit organization entrusted by industry to establish and support the EPCglobal Network as the global standard for real-time, automatic identification of information in the supply chain of any company, anywhere in the world.