Intermec sues Matrics over RFID patent infringement

Computerworld - Intermec Technologies Corp. this week filed a lawsuit alleging that Matrics Inc. has infringed on its RFID patents, according to Mike Wills, vice president and general manager of Intermec. The suit, filed Monday in the U.S. District Court in Wilmington, Del., seeks "reasonable" license payments from Matrics for Intermec's intellectual property.
Intermec and Matrics are on opposing industry teams working on specifications for the next-generation radio frequency identification tag for EPCglobal Inc., the Princeton, N.J.-based RFID standards-setting body.
Wills said yesterday that Everett, Wash.-based Intermec believes Matrics has infringed on RFID patents that cover readers, chips, RFID tag operation and the association of tags with wireless memory devices.
Intermec, a subsidiary of Unova Inc., also based in Everett, believes that Matrics has infringed on four of its "foundational" RFID patents, Wills said. He did not disclose how much money Intermec wants but said, "We don't want to put them out of business."
Even so, Will said, "we're looking for the industry to recognize the validity of our [intellectual property]."
Intermec sells a line of RFID products, ranging from tags and readers to RFID labels and printers, and aims to be a major RFID technology vendor in the retail supply chain.
Matrics, based in Rockville, Md., said in a statement today that it has not "received any formal communication from Intermec or from the court regarding this lawsuit as yet. There were no prior discussions with Intermec or its representatives on this subject and we were surprised by the press announcement."
The company said that it, too, is a "technology innovator with a strong patent portfolio, [and] respects a company's right to exercise and to defend its intellectual property position. We will evaluate the lawsuit based on its merit, once we are in receipt of the details."
Matrics has a line of tags and readers targeted at the retail market and has won two major RFID tag contracts over the past year. Last November, Matrics won a five-year, $25 million contract to provide 100 million 900-MHz RFID bag tags to McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas (see story).
Last month, Matrics won a contract from the Airport Authority Hong Kong to supply RFID readers, as well as to provide systems installation and support services for an RFID-based bag-tracking system.
The Intermec patent suit was filed just weeks ahead of a key date for the development of standards for the next generation of RFID chips, which operate in the 900-MHz UHF band called UHF Gen 2. Matrics and Alien Technology Corp. inMorgan Hill, Calif., have backed one draft standard. Texas Instruments Inc., Philips Semiconductors, SAMSys Technologies Inc. and Zebra Technologies Corp. have backed another proposed standard.
Jack Grasso, a spokesman for EPCglobal, said the standards body plans to issue a final draft of specifications for the UHF Gen 2 tag at the end of this month, with approval expected by year's end.