Another salvo was launched in the heated battle over RFID intellectual property with the announcement earlier this week of the RFID Consortium, a cross-industry group advocating a patent pool approach to simplify the process of IP licensing. The consortium, sporting 20 members that include Avery Dennison Corp., Symbol Technologies Inc., Alien Technology Corp., Zebra Technologies Corp. and ThingMagic Inc., is following the model of successful IP licensing approaches adopted by the DVD and MPEG-2 industries and is designed to promote the rapid adoption of RFID technology, the organizers said. The consortium's licensing work will be complementary to and supportive of the EPC Gen2 standards developed by EPCglobal, a not-for-profit organization involved in proposing standards for Electronic Product Codes and RFID technology, as well those promoted by the International Standards Organization (ISO). The goal of the consortium is to create a licensing arrangement whereby disparate patent holders combine their IP and license them as a group -- an approach, consortium members believe, is much more cost-effective and less time-consuming than negotiating individual licenses. Since RFID has been around for 50-plus years, numerous companies hold critical patents, resulting in what's been described as an IP "thicket" of interlocking patents that make it difficult to complete licensing arrangements. By banding together with a pool approach, the industry can minimize such complexities. "It's a win-win program," said Stan Drobac, consortium spokesperson and vice president, RFID strategy and planning for Avery Dennison, in an interview. "It will simplify licensing for both patent holders and licensees resulting in greater revenue sooner for patent holders, with lower cost and less uncertainty for producers of RFID equipment and technology. Consumers also win big thanks to the rapid adoption of the technology by larger numbers of companies, which results in greater competition, a larger market, and benefits to all involved." Quite a rosy picture, but in truth, the horizon for RFID IP is a bit more cloudy. Intermec Technologies Corp. (Everett, WA), which has one of the largest RFID IP portfolios with some 140-odd patents, has so far taken a go-it-alone licensing approach, and has even gone as far as to file suit against Symbol for alleged violations of its RFID patents. (Click here for the latest chapter in its IP clash with Symbol Technologies.) Intermec's Rapid Start licensing initiative, while adopted by many key players, including Zebra Technologies, has been criticized by some for being too pricey. Intermec issued a statement upon announcement of the RFID consortium, saying that aggregation of these "widely-scattered and less critical" RFID patents may be beneficial for the industry, however it did not see any impact on its own Rapid Start program. "It is too early to draw a conclusion about the pros and cons of the consortium until the details of its purpose, ownership, control, processes, participation by patent holders, and legal compliance -- particularly with strict antitrust regulations -- becomes available," the statement read. The RFID Consortium's Drobac said the group was actively trying to recruit other key patent holders and that it would take "months, not days or weeks, but not years," to pull this together and get a patent collection available for licensing. The Consortium has hired counsel to assist them in the process, and some estimates point to early 2006 for everything to come together. When asked about Intermec's possible participation, Drobac declined to discuss talks underway with specific companies. Yet even without participation by some of the key patent players, he and other experts maintained the consortium still has merit. "With or without Intermec, the number of patent negotiations will be reduced from potentially hundreds down to a handful," said Erik Michielsen, director of RFID and ubiquitous technologies, for ABI Research (Oyster Bay, NY), in a prepared statement. "If need be, companies can still address Intermec licensing on a one-to-one basis. The market will still move forward more quickly." Some experts view the consortium as a means for some in the industry to try to force Intermec's hand in its licensing strategy. "This is an overture by Symbol to say, 'this is the forum we'd like to use to resolve the dispute,'" said Jeff Woods, research vice president for market researcher Gartner Inc. (Stamford, CT). "Neither Intermec or Symbol wants this to be a global, thermo-nuclear war -- they'd like to resolve the dispute, but there's a boatload of money on the table, and neither is willing unnecessarily to give ground." If in the end, the RFID Consortium is really about simplifying licensing among the smaller patent holders, then Woods and others believe it's bound for success. However, if the real mission is to resolve the Intermec licensing issue, then that's another story. Said Woods: "This is a very careful dance and an on-going negotiation. This is one tactic, but in the end, I don't think a patent pool will ultimately resolve [the Intermec] issues."