Smartrac and Assa Abloy settle patent dispute
Conflict over antenna inlay production process ends with Assa Abloy giving up seventy patents in exchange for licenses; deal paves the way for a possible Smartrac IPO
A simmering patent dispute that threatened to derail the European ePassport has been resolved, according to news reports. Germany-based Assa Abloy Identification Technologies and Netherlands-based Smartrac N.V., both of which supply components for e-passports, have come to an agreement in which Assa Abloy will assign ownership of seventy patents to SmarTrac in exchange for a license to use them. Not surprisingly, as we have often reported on Smartrac’s line of business, the dispute centers on the passport inlays — in particular the method of embedding antenna wires within them during production. “We don’t really care about owning the patents,” said Assa Abloy’s Joe Grillo. “We wanted to use the technology.” Smartrac offered no immediate comment, but outside pbservers noted that the resolution may put a delayed IPO back on track. Good thing, that — at least so far as would-be investors are concerned: Smartrac says it is involved in 70 of the 95 e-passport projects worldwide.
-read more in this Card Technology report
