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Charles Walton, the Father of RFID

Posted by simoniker on from the rtfm-on-rfid dept.

Roland Piquepaille writes "In a very interesting article, the San Jose Mercury News tells us about Charles Walton, the man behind the radio frequency identification technology (RFID). Since his first patent about it in 1973, Walton, now 83 years old, collected about $3 million from royalties coming from his patents. Unfortunately for him, his latest patent about RFID expired in the mid-1990s. So he will not make any money from the billions of RFID tags that will appear in the years to come. But he continues to invent and his latest patent about a proximity card with incorporated PIN code protection was granted in June 2004. Maybe he'll be luckier with this one. This overview contains some excerpts of the original article. It also contains tips to search for Walton's patents and an image of the front page of his first patent."

25 of 169 comments (clear)

  1. Patents and Privacy by Webmoth · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Frankly, this is one patent that wouldn't bother me had it not expired.

    Were licensing fees prohibitive for mass-scale introduction of RFID tags, personal privacy would be safer.

    --
    Give me my freedom, and I'll take care of my own security, thank you.
    1. Re:Patents and Privacy by guido1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Were licensing fees prohibitive for mass-scale introduction of RFID tags, personal privacy would be safer.

      What would the patent holder have gained by making them prohibitive? Had his patent not expired, the only difference is he would have been richer. I'm sure the technology would still have been used... (Unless this guy is truly altruistic.)

    2. Re:Patents and Privacy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The retard parade marches on.

      There are serious economic advantages to be had using RFID chips in many applications that are not end-user related. Get over yourself, no one cares about your pathetic little life posting a +5 karma whoring on Slashdot with its tired privacy rhetoric, even if you did have an RFID tag in your keyboard.

    3. Re:Patents and Privacy by blueskies · · Score: 3, Interesting
      "Were licensing fees prohibitive for mass-scale introduction of RFID tags, personal privacy would be safer."
      ROTFLMFAO

      Because licensing would prevent what exactly? Identity theift? The fact that credit card companies and banks collect information on me? Would it stop websites from cookie-ing my browser? People spying through my windows? Eliminate the need for my tinfoil hat?

      Have you any clue about the signal strength of passive rfid tags, which i'm assuming you're talking about? They are powered by a tag reader that is required to keep it's output power underneath FCC standards and then they transmit back using the power provided by that reader. How hard exactly do you think it would be to jam the readers from hearing a reply from these unpowered tags?

      Ok, that felt better. +5 for being insightful? Anyway, with all of that out of the way, there are some privacy issues involved but to make it a black and white case that RFID tags are EVIL is the kind of overgeneraliztions used by karma whores on slashdot...oh.....
  2. Time to get lucky by lockefire · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Maybe he'll be luckier with this one.

    At 83, I don't think he is really that interested in the monetary aspects of the invention process.

  3. Maybe that's WHY they are in widespread use... by greenfly · · Score: 4, Insightful
    It seems to me that maybe one of the reasons RFID tags are in such widespread use now is the fact that the patent did expire so other companies were free to implement their own uses for it. He got $3 million, which isn't bad, and now it goes into the public domain, as it should.

    This is why we have patents, everyone is just so used to predatory patents nowadays that someone not making money hand-over-fist from a patent seems strange.

    1. Re:Maybe that's WHY they are in widespread use... by garcia · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It seems to me that maybe one of the reasons RFID tags are in such widespread use now is the fact that the patent did expire so other companies were free to implement their own uses for it.

      Nah, they are in widespread use because there is now more technology to read them. People are less aware and disgusted by intrusive technology (some even think it's fucking good for them -- ooh, but the ones inbedded in tires will make our roads safer w/o us having to actually have real police out there patroling!)

      The only way that the public will revolt against instrusive technologies is if it somehow keeps them from watching Survivor.

    2. Re:Maybe that's WHY they are in widespread use... by metlin · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Exactly!

      And this is how patents should be, IMHO.

      The inventor gets a fair benefit out of his invention, while the rest can explore and make use of it to everyone else's (and their) benefit down the line.

      These days, patents seem to exhibit the idea that the inventor should get a cut for every penny that's been made out of his/her invention. If this were the case, civilization would have long stalled.

      The ideal patent would be one where the inventor gets a fair benefit, and others can have a free go at the invention so that they can improvise and better it for everyone else.

      I do not see why he should be worried, especially since he's made enough already.

    3. Re:Maybe that's WHY they are in widespread use... by metlin · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Heh! How true.

      Ironic, isn't it? People do not seem to notice or care when their privacy or rights are being violated.

      However, they do not hesitate to show their pretentious moral indignation at the slightest opportunity of things that should not even bother them (ah, a certain nipple incident comes to mind).

      RFIDs maybe good for some applications, but down the line, when you have a quintillion things tracking you you can kiss whatever little privacy you have goodbye.

      As it is, our habits are being tracked, our browsing habits are being tracked and we have cams everywhere. RFID is only going to make it easier for the powers-that-be to watch us and control.

      And honestly, I would not be surprised when RFIDs are in place, some act will be passed that will make simply take advantage of this to exploit whatever little rights we have.

      And when they do pass a law that says

      "Henceforth, all humans should walk around with an embedded trackable microchip.

      people will not bat an eyelid and obey it. Trust me, it will happen.

  4. His famous quote from when RFID was first used by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    "I am become death, the tracker of products."

    We can't put the genie back in the bottle.

  5. Luckier!? by the_mad_poster · · Score: 3, Insightful

    He made three million dollars. I should be 1/2 as lucky as him..... sheesh

    --
    Alito: A vote for Alito is a punch in the eye to put that bitch back in her place!
  6. at 83, money is more important than luck by John_Sauter · · Score: 4, Funny
    At 83, I don't think he is really that interested in the monetary aspects of the invention process.
    I beg to disagree. As you get older, the cost of female companionship goes up.
    nbsp; John Sauter (J_Sauter@Empire.Net)
  7. I Seriously Doubt That Man Invented the RFID by John_Booty · · Score: 4, Funny

    He has a patent for it, after all. And we all know that the US Parent Office only grants patents when there are clear examples of existing prior art, right? Think about it!

    --

    OtakuBooty.com: Smart, funny, sexy nerds.
    1. Re:I Seriously Doubt That Man Invented the RFID by John_Booty · · Score: 3, Insightful

      A patent all depends on how broad you make the claims, but the first thing I thought of is the aircraft IFF [dean-boys.com] (identification friend or foe) transponder which dates back to WWar II. A radio signal is sent out to an aircraft and an identification is returned - definitely 'rfid' on an airspace scale.

      What's unique about RFID is that the responding device (ie, the RFID tag on your clothes, or your Mobil Speedpass keychain, or your FreedomPay tag) isn't self-powered. Most RFID chips have no internal power source; they get their power from the RF waves broadcast from the RFID reader. The power from the RF waves powers the RFID chip long enough for the chip to power up, and broadcast a reply to the RFID reader's query.

      Now that's cool. And it's also what makes them so low-cost and useful (for good and bad). You can literally print those RFID tags; no need to include a battery.

      --

      OtakuBooty.com: Smart, funny, sexy nerds.
  8. privacy, schmivacy by surreal-maitland · · Score: 4, Interesting

    i don't understand the big fear of lack of privacy due to RFID tags. capitalism just takes care of it. if enough people don't want their location known, there will be a market for clothing, etc that does not have RFID tags embedded in it. the government's never going to say (knock on wood) that all clothes or shoes or whatever must have RFID tags, so it's really not something to worry about.

    --
    -ninjaneer
    1. Re:privacy, schmivacy by molarmass192 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Ahhh ... that's where you're neglecting a key piece of information. For capitalism to work as per the definition of capitalism, consumers must be "perfectly informed". Companies have a vested interest in keeping the consumer under-informed when it comes to RFID. The solution is for the government to mandate a warning tag like the warnings on cigarette boxes. Then capitalism would decide if RFID lives or dies. Something like, "WARNING: This product contains an chip that publically broadcasts your private usage of this product.". Anyhow, I've got a microwave, nothing 15 seconds in there won't fix.

      --

      Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws-Plato
    2. Re:privacy, schmivacy by thadman08 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Actually, #3 isn't too big of a concern.

      The RFID contains NO information other than its own ID. Anything that obtains/reads that ID still has to hook into some database that contains the list of previous actions using that ID.

      So, really, the privacy issue in that regard isn't that bad.

  9. Disc Golf by Squareball · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I want these tags on me Disc Golf discs! I lose to many and at $10 a pop it gets expensive. Just wonder if they are small enought to be embedded in the discs. Then we just need a hand held locator to find them with.

  10. another one gets past the PTO by frovingslosh · · Score: 3, Insightful
    his latest patent about a proximity card with incorporated PIN code protection was granted in June 2004

    OK, RFID is an invention, I'll grant that. And I'll not get into the endless debate over the good and evil of it. But given the RFID is over 20 years old, what part of a proximity card with incorporated PIN code isn't so obvious and apparent to the average engineer that it should qualify for a patent? And isn't there plenty of prior art?

    --
    I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
  11. just maybe... by mobiux · · Score: 3, Insightful

    this should be used as a perfect example of how patents are supposed to work?

    You make your money off it, then it is released to the public domain for the common good? (although that "good" part may be questioned by some in this case)

  12. RSA made little money, as well... by GPLDAN · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Go ask Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir, and Leonard Adleman about making money from patents. they hardly cashed in on what was one of the net's most successful algorithms. Multiplying large primes was an important breakthrough in cryptography, I think Schnier states this in one of his diatribes.

    The point is, if society doesn't use your invention en masse until after the patent expires, it's not a reason to extend patents any further than they already are.

    Look, almost everyone on Slashdot and the technical media agree, the patent system is horribly broken and corrupted. For every story on the guy who ONLY made $3M on RFID, there are many more stories of bullshit patents on spellcheckers or the use of cookies in browsers to shop (the Bezos debacle) and a million other reasons not to hear the sob story and say "damn, he should be rich(er) but he's not!"

  13. wouldn't make a difference by John+Harrison · · Score: 4, Informative
    The cost of making the antenna is the largest factor in the price of the simplest RFID tags. The industry is pretty close to the elusive 5 cent tag, which has been the holy grail for some time. It is improved technology (as opposed to expiring patents) that has lead to the reduction in cost over time.

    Were the patent still in force he could charge less than a penny per tag and he would still get rich (there will be billions and billions of tags) and the cost wouldn't be prohibitive.

    If he insisted on a high fee, such as a dollar per tag that would certainly slow the adoption of the technology, but why would he do that?

    In the end the market would have dictated the price and it would be low in order to allow adoption of the technology and maximize his profit. In that case, what you are saying would not be any more applicable than it is today.

    --
    Lasers Controlled Games!
  14. RFID Patents...current happenings by ChromDome · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Last week, Intermec filed suit against Matrics over RFID Patent Infringment. Intermec owns a WIDE variety of patents in the RFID space that are very general in nature.

    For those of you who don't live in the RFID world...Matrics is the vendor who's hardware is being put into WalMart. Many insiders believe that Intermec's lawsuit was designed to poision the water around a possible acquistion of Matrics by one of Intermec's competitors. There is also a general train of thought that Intermec tactically blundered by moving too soon, they should have waited 6 more months for the RFID initiative within WalMart to really catch on before they hit the industry with royalties.

    http://www.computerworld.com/mobiletopics/mobile /t echnology/story/0,10801,93744,00.html

    --
    We are but the sum of our experiances
  15. It's just a tool by mslinux · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I get so sick of people talking about how technology is bad.

    Technology is technology... it is not good or bad. OK?

    Men can use technology in good or bad ways. For example, an axe can chop down a tree or cut someone's head off. It's simply a piece of technology. Scissors can cut paper, they can also be jammed into someone's jugular vein. Nuclear energy provides power for business es and residents everywhere, it also can be used to blow up countries.

    Nothing personal, it's just technology. It's inanimate. It has no feelings. It doesn't care how it might be used. It's just there for use.

  16. Delay in RFID NOT due to patent by PatHMV · · Score: 4, Informative

    Umpteen morons have posted so far claiming, without benefit of evidence, that RFID has only recently begun to be widely implemented because the patent expired. Baloney!

    Even the briefist of Google searches will show you that RFID implementation has been bogged down by 2 factors: sufficiently cheap manufacturing techniques and industry-wide standards for implementation / data encoding / frequency usage. It took bar codes decades to become ubiquitous, in part because of the same need for standard data dsecriptions that allow every product by every manufacturer to be given a unique bar code.

    See Frontline, and CSEMag.com, just to pick 2.

    The fact that this was patented had nothing to do with its lack of widespread use. Get a grip, people!