RFID Consortium Expands to Eight Industry Leaders With the Addition of ETRI

ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- Sisvel US and the RFID Consortium announced that ETRI has joined the RFID Consortium and will participate in the Consortium's joint licensing program for patents essential to the UHF RFID standard. ETRI joins other patent owners 3M, France Telecom, HP, LG Electronics, Motorola, ThingMagic, and Zebra Technologies to promote rapid adoption of UHF RFID technology by offering a single license to patents essential to the practice of the UHF RFID standards owned by the participating companies. Sisvel is the administrator of the licensing program.

"There are many essential patents covering various aspects of UHF RFID technology in multiple countries around the world, creating complex and costly licensing requirements for anyone who wants to manufacture or sell UHF RFID tags or readers," said Jim O'Hagan, a spokesperson for the RFID Consortium and Director of Patents and Technology for Zebra Technologies. "Through the RFID Consortium, manufacturers will have access to a single low-cost license to essential patents from multiple leading global firms."

"As a leader in information and communications technology research, ETRI is a great addition to the Consortium and their participation will enhance the value of the Consortium's patent portfolio license for manufacturers and sellers of UHF RFID products," O'Hagan explained.

Participation in the UHF RFID licensing program and the RFID Consortium is open to all holders of patents essential to the UHF RFID standards. Holders of patents interested in participating in the RFID Consortium and parties interested in obtaining a portfolio license under the joint licensing program are encouraged to contact Sisvel's representative Sean Corey at +1 703-820-0626 or by e-mail at sean.corey@sisvel.com.

About the Sisvel Group

Started in 1982 when Sisvel S.p.A. was founded in Italy, the Sisvel Group has become a world leader in managing intellectual property and maximizing the value of patent rights. The Sisvel Group is global in scope and reach, with companies in Italy (Sisvel in None Torinese and Edico in Rome), the United States (Sisvel US and Audio MPEG in Metropolitan Washington, DC), China (Sisvel Hong Kong), Japan (Sisvel Japan in Tokyo), and Germany (Sisvel Germany in Stuttgart), and with more than seventy professionals worldwide with technical, legal, and licensing expertise.

SISVEL has a long history of managing successful patent portfolios including those related to the audio compression standards known as MP3 and MPEG Audio, and widespread technologies such as OSD (On Screen Display), ATSS (Automatic Tuning & Sorting System), and WSS (Wide Screen Signaling - for automatic switching of television image formats). Most recently SISVEL has been appointed as the administrator of patent pools for the UHF-RFID, CDMA 2000 and DVB-T standards.

About the RFID Consortium

The RFID Consortium, LLC is a limited liability company that licenses patents essential to the practice of ultrahigh frequency radio frequency identification (UHF RFID) standards. The RFID Consortium's goals are to promote rapid adoption of UHF RFID by facilitating easier access, by manufacturers and customers alike, to essential UHF RFID patents and to provide patent owners the opportunity to receive fair compensation for those patents, all at a reasonable cost to the end-user. The current Members of the RFID Consortium are: 3M Innovative Properties Company, a subsidiary of 3M Company (MMM); Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI); France Telecom (FTE); HP (HPQ); LG Electronics; Motorola, Inc. (MOT); ThingMagic, Inc.; and Zebra Technologies Corporation (ZBRA). The UHF RFID standards referred to above are the standards announced by EPCglobal Inc. and ISO/IEC including the EPCglobal Generation 1 (Class 0, Class 0+ and Class 1) and Generation 2 (Class 1), and the ISO/IEC 18000-Part 6c (including Amendment 1) parameters for air interface communications at 860 MHz to 960 MHz for radio frequency identification and the communications and interface protocols and conformance specifications referred to in those documents.

For additional information about Sisvel or the RFID Consortium, please visit www.sisvel.com; www.rfidlicensing.com; or email uhf-rfid@sisvel.com.