The following selections provide additional perspective about the report.

How will purchasing RFID 2004 benefit you?

How can specific users apply the Material Provided in the Report?
        Corporations
        Legal Firms
        Information Providers
        Research Organizations
        Venture Capital
        Technical Recruiters

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Technology Summary

The following paragraphs show the headings used in the Technology Summary volume of the report and summarize what each section contains.

Title, Legal Statements and Introduction

This section presents legal issues related to the document and describes the overall structure of the document and its contents.

Table of Contents

The table of contents shows an expanded view of all the sections of the report..

What is RFID?

This section gives a basic definition of RFID and describes the technical elements and nomenclature used in the technology.   The section provides a substantial review of the technology that goes into an RFID tag or device.   This is helpful, not only to increase familiarity with the technology, but also to establish a structure for analyzing the technical elements of the patents.

Selecting the RFID Patent Base

This section describes the patent search methodology and explains how patents were selected for inclusion in the report.

Organization of Patent Information

This section establishes and explains the structures developed to categorize RFID patent technology.   These structures reflect the significant effort entailed in analyzing, grouping, and synthesizing   the large amount of material involved.

Use of the Material Provided in this Report

The material in this report is typically used quite differently by different users.   Most users are not aware of what others are interested in or how they might be using the information.   This section discusses these uses.

Benefits of the Report

Companies can benefit in many ways from the material in this report.   Most reports, however, are bought by specific individuals to fill their specific, current need.   This section helps readers see the additional benefits they can gain by applying the material across many other functions in their firm.

RFID Market Overview

This is a brief overview of the activity of the commercial players involved in RFID related patents in 2003. This section recaps the major observations from the maps, graphs, tables and outlines section and puts them into a broader commercial perspective.

Using Microsoft Word

This section discusses why the report was prepared in Microsoft Word format and some of the ways to get the best value from this.

About the Author

A short bio of the author.

Maps, Graphs,   Tables and Outlines

This section of the document includes 33 maps, graphs, tables and outlines, organized into the following groupings:

• A look at the number of RFID related patents issued since 1975.
• A look at RFID applications by category
• A look at where RFID shows up in the U.S. patent classification system
• What new Interrogator technology showed up in 2003?
• What new tag technology showed up in 2003?
• What patterns can we find in how the inventions are being assigned to companies?
• Who is doing the inventing?
• Which attorneys are preparing these patents?
• Short included appendix of abbreviations.

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Data Base Appendix

The following paragraphs show the headings used in the Data Base Appendix volume of the report and summarize what each section contains. The Data Base Appendix is a detailed listing of the patent data which formed the basis of RFID 2004.   The appendix can be purchased as a separate document.   The appendix includes the following sections:

Year 2003 Patents

This table lists RFID related patents found during the patent search which were issued in 2003.   The table provides information for 535 patents.   It lists:

• Patent Number
• Patent Issue Date
• Key Inventor
• Patent Title
• Technical explanation if the title is not self explanatory or not adequately descriptive.
• Technology categorization

Pre-2003 Patents

This table lists RFID related patents issued prior to 2003.   The table includes both patents located during the keyword search and patents referenced by the patents which were translated.   The table provides information for 3744 patents.   The table lists:

• Patent Number
• Patent Date
• Inventor
• Patent Title

Tables for Inventors in 2003

This collection of tables lists the inventors who were responsible for the RFID patents issued in 2003.   These tables provide information on 455 U.S. and 152 foreign inventors.   The tables lists:

• Inventor name
• Home town for most
• Street address for some
• State for most, if U.S.
• Country
• Patent number

The tables show the inventor data sorted multiple ways:

• Alphabetical order
• Multiple patent inventors ordered by number of inventions
• Location order by State and Country
• Patent number order

Tables for Assignees in 2003

Assignees are the original companies to which the patents were licensed as listed in the patents.   For patents issued in 2003, this information is probably pretty good.   The tables provide information on 112 U.S. and 47 foreign firms.   The tables list:

• Company name
• Home town for most
• State for most in the U.S.
• Country

The tables show the assignee data sorted multiple ways:

• Alphabetical order
• Multiple assignments ordered by number of assignments
• Location order by State and Country

Table of Attorneys in 2003

This table shows which attorneys prosecuted ( prepared and filed ) the patents that were issued in 2003.   The table provides names for 140 attorneys or firms.   Only names are shown in the table.   The table is ordered to show which attorneys prosecuted multiple patents.

Composite Table for 2003

This table forms the basis for the other tables.   It lists 298 RFID relevant 2003 patent numbers.   For each patent, it lists:

• Patent number
• One or more technology summaries describing the content of the patent.
• A list of the named inventors.
• The assignee firm
• The prosecuting attorney

This table is vital to make cross correlations of variables.   For example, if someone in New York wanted to create a list of technologies transferred into that state from Europe, the specific location information in this table would allow that to be done.

RFID Information Sources

This section summarizes other information sources, besides the patents, that can be used as references for RFID technology.   The section is provided as a convenience for finding basic information on the technology.   It only scratches the surface of the information available for RFID.

Abbreviations

This section captures all abbreviations used in this report.

Using Microsoft Word

This section discusses why the report was prepared in Microsoft Word format and some of the ways to get the best value from this. (Repeated from the Technology Summary)

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Translated Patents

The following paragraphs show the headings used in the Translated Patents volume of the report and summarize what each section contains. The Translated Patents volume takes 81 patents issued in 2003, and translates the abstract and claims into technical English.   It also translates 3 important patents from before 2003.   Verbatim copies of the patent abstracts and claims are included for comparison.

These patents were selected because they presented technical improvements to RFID tag or radio system technology.   The other RFID relevant patents issued in 2003, were aimed at application methods.   The applications were implemented with commercially available RFID products. These method patents have not been translated, but the information in them has been incorporated into the Technology Summary.

Because of the legal language used in patents, reading patents can be very difficult and therefore a very expensive and time-consuming effort.   Using the translations will greatly reduce this effort and, for many readers, yield more accurate results.

To perform the translation, the author first read each patent completely.   With a combination of manual and heuristic programming efforts, the abstract and claims were reworded in summary form in technical English.   A summary was created, describing what the patent is about and commenting on any special considerations.   When patents are disjoint (meaning the claims, abstract, title and discussion address different things), comments are provided for each of the disjoint parts.

The Translated Patents volume has the following sections:

( Some material is repeated from the main document because the Translation volume can be purchased as an independent work.)

Introduction

Selection Criterion for the translated patents

A detailed review of how the patents were selected. (repeat of the material from the main document)

What is RFID?

This section gives a basic definition of RFID and describes the technical elements and nomenclature used in the technology summaries. (repeat of the material from the main document)

Translated patents - Technical English Summaries

This section provides English language translations for the Abstract and Claims of 84 patents.   81 are from 2003.   3 are prior to 2003 and are included because they present the fundamental technology for RFID.   Each patent has the following subsections:

What The Patent Covers

This is a short summary of the major technical contributions of the patent.

Comments

This subsection presents opinions of the author which qualify the overall patent summary.

Abstract

This summarizes the patent Abstract.   If the Abstract is disjoint and does not address the rest of the patent, the wording stays focused on the original intent.   Instances of this are identified in the comments.

Claims

This summarizes the technical material in the patent Claims.   Each claim is translated separately so the structure and dependencies of the claims are retained.

Description

This is an optional subsection which is included if the description section of the patent introduces significant material which was not addressed in the claims.

Translated patents – Verbatim

This section covers the same patents as the English language translation section.   In this section, the Title, Abstract and Claims are copied directly from the U.S. Patents providing the original legal wording for reference.

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Use of the Material Provided in This Report

RFID 2004 was prepared based on assumptions concerning how various readers might use the presented material.   The assumptions were addressed to deliver the set of listed benefits. (discussed elsewhere)   The following sections show how various readers might use the report material.

Corporations

A major assumption was that most departments of a typical company eventually become involved with the intellectual property concerns of the company.   To understand this further, a number of specific ways the material could be used were listed for each department:

Use of the Report Material by Engineering

• Determine the technology state of the art.
• Determine what technical interest other companies have.
• Find out which companies are actively developing competing technology.
• Determine if any planned product features conflict with prior art.
• Get ideas to expand products using old technologies.
• Get ideas for new technology development.
• Structure ongoing R&D activity to avoid conflicts with competitors.
• Structure ongoing R&D activity to purposely create conflicts with competitors and block their patents.
• Locate outside inventors who can support internal product development.

Use of the Report Material by Manufacturing

• Benchmark internal methods against what others are doing.
• Determine if any existing methods used by the company conflict with prior patent art.
• Determine if any planned methods conflict with protected methods.
• Get ideas for new production methods.

Use of the Report Material by Marketing

• Determine what new technologies other companies are working on.
• Define the competitive environment for new technology.
• Quantify the ROI of potential options.
• Define the business case for current product features and develop a plan for future products.
• Create a roadway into the market for the company’s core technology to expand.
• Find and grab weak territory in competitor’s market strategies.
• Find and grab opportunities left by other companies that may have failed.
• Find and grab opportunities created by small inventors that have not been exploited.

Use of the Report Material by Sales

• Prepare geographical analysis of markets and competition.
• Differentiate company products from competitive products.
• Provide educational material for customers.
• Provide historical training material for the sales staff.

Use of the Report Material by Legal

• Patent search
• Claims analysis
• Technology analysis and structuring
• Models for writing new patents
• Source material for new patents
• Find prior art to disallow competitive patents
• Create a wall of protection for the core technology of the company
• Create a bank of high value technology trading cards to reduce the effect of legal attacks
• Bringing new personnel up to speed on the technology
• Gaining a quick understanding of the market for discussions with marketing and engineering

Use of the Report Material at the Executive level

• Understand the technical field from an overview perspective.
• Provide clear direction for future technology development.
• Provide incentives for internal technology innovation.
• Create a bank of high value technology trading cards to attract future investment
• Bringing new personnel up to speed on the technology and market.

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Legal Firms

The report lists 140 legal firms who prosecuted RFID related patents in 2003.   Legal firms face competitive pressures just like any other business.   The more information they have with regard to a particular subject, the better services they will be able to provide their clients.   Some specific uses a legal firm would be able to make of the material in this report are:

• Patent search - quick access to a very thorough patent search on RFID
• Claims structuring - the structure and content of claims can be developed based on industry practice
• Portfolio development - a high level overview of the technologies being prosecuted can be used to guide clients in selecting what issues to patent going forward
• Client prospecting – if the firm has skills applicable to RFID, the report will give them a list of inventors and firms who have used such services.
• Service promotion – a firm with RFID related skills may want to promote these skills by writing articles on the subject.   Having an index to the RFID patent history, with analysis, will greatly decrease research costs and provide directly useable market statistics.
• Litigation information – by laying out the RFID patent space, attorneys can quickly determine where to go to get relevant information.

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Information Providers

Giving the industry an overview of what is going on is a primary role of information companies.   Such companies include magazines, trade associations, news letter groups, industry analysts, business promotion organizations etc.   Some specific uses they could make of the report are:

• Patent search – highlighting specific technology improvements.
• Competitive data – listing which firms are pursuing what technologies and applications
• Geographic data – looking at the dynamics of various locations in the country
• Filling out current offerings – a company might want to offer this material along with a market analysis they already have to provide a more comprehensive service.

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Research Organizations

Research organizations like colleges and independent R&D labs, rely on knowing what is going on in any field to plan where to aim their future work.   A major need for them is having overview information for writing proposals.   Specific uses of the report for research organizations would be:

• Proposal development – to provide support information that shows the funding agent that the company has a good knowledge of the field.
• Topic selection – a key factor in winning awards is knowing what people are looking for.   The report shows what the industry is investing in.   It also allows evaluation of new ideas against the full range of what has been done.
• Client prospecting – for research organizations with RFID experience, the report shows which commercial firms are investing in development of this technology.

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Venture Capital

Understanding the market is one of the major issues faced for every funding decision.   Efficiency means getting a market answer in the shortest time for the least cost.   This report can give you these kinds of answers for the RFID market:

• Who is actually doing what - cut through all the marketing hype.   Here are the names and numbers for the underlying technology.
• How unique is what they have? – the technology actually patented is described, “in English”.
• How do we quantify the space?   - the report provides a structure to do this.
• How crowed is the space? - the report quantifies the data according to the structure.
• How can we gauge whether the entrepreneurs know what they’re talking about?   The report is thorough.
• Who owns what? – Start with the patent assignee lists.
• What novelty does the entrepreneur have and is it sustainable? – Check it out against the patent maps.

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Technical Recruiters

Recruiting has become very competitive.   Many recruiters only focus on very narrow market niches.   The benefit of this is an ability to accumulate knowledge in the niche.   This report can provide appropriate information very quickly.   Some examples:

• Client prospecting – if the firm has candidates with skills applicable to RFID, the report will provide a list of firms who are interested in these skills.
• Prospecting door openers – the best way to make a strong impression on prospective clients is to give them information they don’t have.   This report will make you an instant expert.
• Service promotion – a firm with RFID related skills may want to promote these skills by writing articles on the subject.   Having an index to the RFID patent history, with analysis, will provide the information base to prepare these articles.
• Candidate allegiance – many candidates are very technology focused.   To keep them loyal, you need to speak their language.   This report gives you the language and the facts to impress them.

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Pricing

Current price list ( as of April 2004 )

Contact High Impact IP for special quantity pricing.

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How to purchase

RFID 2004 is supplied as a CD-ROM formatted for IBM compatible computers as Microsoft Word .rtf files.  Order by snail mail, e-mail, phone or fax..

Advanced Payment

For advanced payment orders, please send a check or money order for the full amount along with a completed order form by mail to High Impact IP.  The order form can be found by clicking the button below.  An invoice showing payment in full, will be provided with the report.

Purchase Orders

To order using a company purchase order, please complete a standard RFID 2004 order form and prepare a company purchase order.  Send these by mail, e-mail or fax to High Impant IP.  The report will be shipped against the purchase order and will include an invoice for payment, net 30 days.

To place an order, please select the Order Form button below to get a printable order form.

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