Sisvel and RFID Consortium Offer Limited Extension of Royalty Discounts for UHF RFID Licensing

ALEXANDRIA, Virginia, May 24, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

- Early Adopter Rates Now Available Until November 30, 2011

Sisvel US and the RFID Consortium today announced a limited extension of the "early adopter" discount royalty rates offered under the Consortium's UHF RFID licensing program. Launched on August 31, 2010, the licensing program included an initial early adopter period that expired at the end of March 2011. Based on the number of ongoing license negotiations, the Consortium is now announcing a one-time extension of these discount rates to those licensees that enter into patent portfolio licenses on or before November 30, 2011.

The UHF RFID Licensing Program is a joint effort by 3M; ETRI; France Telecom; HP; LG Electronics; Motorola Solutions; Trimble Navigation Limited - ThingMagic Division; and Zebra Technologies to promote rapid adoption of UHF RFID technology by creating a single license to a portfolio that includes all their patents essential to the EPCglobal and ISO/IEC standards for UHF RFID. This provides a convenient and economical way for UHF RFID developers and manufacturers, as well as firms interested in adding UHF RFID functionality to other products, to license essential patents in a single transaction.

"The program's early adopter discounts have generated substantial interest, and this extension will give licensees one additional opportunity to lock in the lowest available rates," said Giustino de Sanctis, Chairman of Sisvel US. The program's early adopter rates can bring the royalty rate for UHF RFID label products to as little as $.80 per one thousand units and the rate for UHF RFID readers to as low as $5.00 per unit. In all cases, effective rates may vary based on volume and require execution of a license agreement, which contains other terms and conditions, on or before November 30, 2011. Full details of these terms and the license agreement can be obtained from Sisvel.

Participation in the UHF RFID licensing program and the RFID Consortium remains open to all holders of essential patents, regardless of whether they were involved in the development of RFID standards. Parties interested in obtaining a portfolio license or learning about the patent submission process are encouraged to contact Sisvel's representative Sean Corey at +1-703-820-0626 or by e-mail at sean.corey@sisvelus.com.

About the Sisvel Group

Started in 1982 when Sisvel S.p.A. was founded in Italy, the Sisvel Group has become a world leader in managing intellectual property and maximizing the value of patent rights. The Sisvel Group is global in scope and reach, with companies in Italy (Sisvel in None Torinese and Edico in Rome), the United States (Sisvel US and Audio MPEG in Metropolitan Washington, DC), China (Sisvel Hong Kong), Japan (Sisvel Japan in Tokyo), Germany (Sisvel Germany in Stuttgart), and Luxembourg (Sisvel International), and with more than ninety professionals worldwide with technical, legal, and licensing expertise.

Sisvel has a long history of managing successful patent portfolios including those related to the audio compression standards known as MP3 and MPEG Audio, and widespread technologies such as OSD (On Screen Display), ATSS (Automatic Tuning & Sorting System), and WSS (Wide Screen Signaling - for automatic switching of television image formats). Most recently Sisvel has been appointed as the administrator of patent pools for the UHF-RFID, CDMA 2000, DVB-T, and DVB-T2 standards.

About the RFID Consortium

The RFID Consortium, LLC, is a limited liability corporation which licenses patents essential to the practice of ultrahigh frequency radio frequency identification (UHF RFID) standards. The RFID Consortium's goals are to promote rapid adoption of UHF RFID by facilitating easier access, by manufacturers and customers alike, to essential UHF RFID patents and to provide patent owners the opportunity to receive fair compensation for those patents, all at a reasonable cost to the end-user. The current Members of the RFID Consortium are: 3M Innovative Properties Company, a subsidiary of 3M Company (MMM); Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI); France Telecom (FTE); Hewlett-Packard Company (HPQ); LG Electronics; Motorola Solutions, Inc. (MSI); Trimble Navigation Limited, ThingMagic Division (TRMB); and Zebra Technologies Corporation (ZBRA). The UHF RFID standards referred to above are the standards announced by EPCglobal Inc. and ISO/IEC including the EPCglobal Generation 1 (Class 0, Class 0+ and Class 1) and Generation 2 (Class 1), and the ISO/IEC 18000-Part 6c (including Amendment 1) parameters for air interface communications at 860 MHz to 960 MHz for radio frequency identification and the communications and interface protocols and conformance specifications referred to in those documents.

For additional information about Sisvel or the RFID Consortium, please visit http://www.sisvel.com; http://www.rfidlicensing.com; or email uhf-rfid@sisvel.com.