RFID giants bury legal hatchet

Symbol Technologies will now join Intermec's intellectual property licensing programme

Symbol Technologies and data capture firm Intermec today announced an agreement that partially settles their intellectual property dispute over radio frequency identification technology.

The dispute was sparked in June 2004 when Intermec filed a patent infringement suit against Matrics (now owned by Symbol Technologies) related to Intermec's RFID patents.

Under the terms of the settlement all other pending and anticipated legal actions have been placed on hold while the two companies attempt to resolve the outstanding intellectual property disputes.

Symbol Technologies will now join Intermec's Rapid Start RFID intellectual property licensing programme which provides access to Intermec RFID patent portfolios, including RFID tags and fixed and portable readers.

Reciprocally, Symbol will provide Intermec with access to elements of its RFID intellectual property by exercising the cross-licensing provisions of the Rapid Start programme.

In addition, Intermec will file for dismissal of its RFID lawsuit in the Delaware District Court.

The companies stated in a joint announcement: "This agreement is a fair compromise of the issues related to RFID, and subsequent efforts to reach resolution of all legal disputes is in the best interests of shareholders and customers and will encourage accelerated adoption of RFID and automated data collection technologies within the industry."