Intellectual PropertySmart card technology (SCT) success will depend on its ability to obtain,

protect, trade secrets and operate without infringing on the proprietary rights of others.

SCT has applied for a United States patent! Filing patent applications in foreign countries would, provide it with a

competitive advantage. This process facilitates possible future litigation, moreover, the patent laws of other countries differ from those of the United States, as to the patentability of the SCM products or technology and the degree of protection afforded by foreign patents differs from that in the United States.

Obtain patents, is having a material effect on the SCT's ability to successfully compete for its share of the market.

Such patents assures that the SCT will enjoy a significant protection for its intellectual property.

Intellectual Property

Failure to obtain licenses to utilize such technology would have a negative effect and significant delays in product market introductions or could impede the development, manufacture or sale of product.

Patent disputes are common in the smart card and computer industries and there can be no assurance that the SCT will have the financial resources to enforce or defend a patent infringement or proprietary rights action.

The SCT use of its software, name and mark may be subject to challenge by others, which, if successful, could have a negative effect.

Intellectual Property

The development of SCT also relies on trade secrets and proprietary know-how and employs various methods to protect the concepts, ideas and documentation relating to its intellectual property.

This methods may not afford the SCT complete protection and there can be no assurance that others technologies will not independently obtain access to the SCT trade secrets and I.P. or independently develop a product similar to SCT.

Although in the development of SCT has and expects to have confidentiality agreements, there can be no guarantees that such provision will effectively shield SCT in case of litigations.

*Patent

Author Year Title Country AssigneeNumber URL

Graves, L8g 1c1 Marcel A. (Stoney Creek, Ontario, CA) 2002 Smart card technology

United States 6454173

Patent

@{patent:6454173, title = "Smart card technology",number = "6454173",author = "Graves, L8g 1c1 Marcel A.

(StoneyCreek,Ontario, CA)", year = "2002",month = "September",url=http://www.freepatentsonline.com/6454173.html

SCT Participants

A lot of companies have an inters and stake in developing SCT, below are same of them:

Accu-Time Systems, ADT Federal Systems, Anteon, BearingPoint, BordesGroup, Condortech, Corestreet, CTS, Fargo Electronics, GE, GSA, GTSI, HID Corp., Hirsch Electronics, Honeywell, IBM, ID TECH, Identicard, IDTP, Indala, Integrated Command Software, ISR Solutions, Johnson Controls, Legic, Lenel, Lockheed Martin, MartSoft, MDI, NARA, NBS Technologies, Omnikey, ORGA, Proctor & Gamble, Precise Biometrics, Raytheon, RSA Labs, SafeNet, SafLink, SAIC, SC Solutions, SECOM, Sharp, SIA, Siemens, Sun Microsystems, SuperCom, Translore, US Dept of Justice, US Dept of Transportation/Volpe Center, US Marshal Service, Veridt, XtecBroad

Legal Considerations

Even-thow there is a “patent assertations", design information related with this subject is very sensitive in nature!

Stating that no IP agreements would be violated by discussion of various Wiegand formats is false.

Many of the different proprietary Wiegand formats are provided to reader manufacturers by panel manufacturers as "trade secrets" or under Nondisclosure Agreements.

Most of the times this information is safeguarded by reader manufacturers and is treated as confidential information.

Trade Secret

Smat Card Technology is being treated as a trade secret.

It didn’t take long for litigation to follow: Datascape, Inc. v. Visa U.S.A. Inc

Visa in defense of patent infringement action involving “smart card” technology and networking systems.

Cross-licensing

In today’s business world collaboration is the norm and cross-licensing is just another aspect of this collaboration!

Catuity, Inc., Visa USA, Visa International and Welcome Real-time have entered into a patent cross license agreement.

Under this Agreement, Catuity, Visa and Welcome will cross license existing and future patents.

Cross-licensing

This collaboration is been expanded through out the business world.

Recently Giesecke & Devrient (G&D) and Siemens Business Services were awarded with the 2003 Larry Linden Award for Innovative Security Technology by CardTech/SecurTech (CTST) for the Macao Multifunction Smart ID Card and their collaboration.

Benefitting from collaborative research

By collaborative R&D of different companies such as Gemplus which employs over 160 engineers in research and development functions, comprising the industry's largest smart card development team and CASCADE, NOKIA and the academic partners from the British Library, the Open University of the Netherlands and Bureau van Dijk management consultants, SCT not only secured the necessary monetary founds but put an end to the questions “whether or not SCT is the right technology for the present and future needs of industry”.

References

http://www.townsend.com/attorneys/biodetails.asp?o=33

67http://www.actcda.com/resource/0305.htm