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Zebra buys more than 200 new patents

Zebra buys more than 200 new patents Focuses on transponders and antenna designs for RFID tags

VERNON HILLS, Ill.--Zebra Technologies announced Sept. 25 the purchase of a portfolio of more than 200 U.S. and foreign RFID patents from BTG for approximately $10 million dollars. The acquisition makes Zebra owner of one of the largest collections of RFID patents in the world, and includes some of the earliest patents related to the technology. According to Cindy Lieberman, director of corporate marketing for Zebra, the patents will give them the ability to deliver "improved reliability and readability of their RFID tags," as well as enabling Zebra to "use the technology in a wider range of situations. We've been a pioneer of RFID for many years, and there were things in [the portfolio] that were interesting to us--namely, transponders and antenna designs for RFID tags--that we felt could benefit our customers," said Lieberman. Government mandates to secure supply chains for pharmaceutical companies, for example, also necessitate that the technology catches up with the demand. According to Lieberman, "Everyone is talking about needing to tag the identification of products." For more on this story and comments from Tom O'Boyle, vice president of Miles Technologies in Chicago, see the November issue of Security Systems News.

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