EPC Global disagrees; ‘Bloody mess,’ says vendor

By Dann Anthony Maurno

At first, it seemed as if the new UHF Generation 2 standards the industry had been waiting for would finally allow companies to begin making equipment so any tag could be used with any reader anywhere in the world.

EPC Global Inc. even proclaimed Gen 2 the first global royalty-free standard.
This bit of news probably came as a shock to officials at Intermec Technologies Corp. They claimed since August that they wanted royalty payments from some patents they hold they say are needed to build chips, tags and readers that meet the Gen 2 specs. Without Intermec’s patents, an RFID system would be so stripped down, it would be unworkable, officials claim.

EPC Global officials, who had promised to deliver a royalty-free standard by end of 2004, determined Intermec’s intellectual property is not essential and only the royalty-free IP is needed to meet the standard. Last month, Intermec, which had been one of the early pioneers in developing the RFID standards with EPC Global, responded by withdrawing its payment plan—a move some say has put a freeze on the RFID market.