CLASS 1 GEN 2 SPECIFICATION GETS RATIFIED
13 January 2005 - Venture Development Corporation

While the prospects of C1G2 in terms of market development are promising, the industry cannot rest too much weight on the success of RFID in the supply chain on the ratification of this standard alone. The passage of the C1G2 specification is the first of many steps. In fact, getting the standard ratified may have been the easiest one. The industry is now waiting for C1G2-compliant products to be developed and made commercially available. Those products then need to be tested in real world environments. Moreover, C1G2 has yet to become recognized by ISO to become a truly global standard.

In VDC's opinion, the C1G2 standard:

removes a major end-user concern by bringing UHF EPC standards in harmony;

is not final in its present form, 'minor' Application Family Identifiers issue being resolved;

signals the beginning of the next wave of aggressive RFID product development (and testing), particularly for ICs, transponders/smart labels, and readers/reader engines; and

sets the table for further litigation tests with respect to RFID intellectual property.

VDC believes that the industry requires open access to RFID technology and platforms, allowing for multiple suppliers and lower prices. The C1G2 protocol is the technical framework on which all future UHF EPC products will be built, including ICs, transponders, readers, printers/encoders, etc. The specification is 'royalty-free'* and heralded as the first UHF open architecture completely designed by a committee.

EPCglobal's final IP determination for C1G2 was that 'all IP presented on a licensed basis during the standards development process was not necessary to the standard.' However, it is important to note that the claim of a royalty-free air interface protocol specification does not mean royalty-free UHF RFID products per se. The C1G2 standards may be royalty-free; however, all RFID technology is not.

http://www.vdc-corp.com

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