Ruling that the original U.S. patent was invalid, a
Pennsylvania court granted permission to All-Tag and
Sensormatic Electronics Corp. to manufacture and sell a
deactivateable, disposable radio frequency security tag.
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of
Pennsylvania ruled the patent, held by Checkpoint Systems
of Thorofare, N.J., originally filed by Actron AG in March
1988 was invalid because it didn’t identify a co-inventor.
Set to expire in March 2008, the patent was transferred to
Checkpoint when it acquired Actron AG in 1995.
Checkpoint filed suit in May 2001, alleging All-Tag and
Sensormatic’s tag infringed upon its patent. The company is
reviewing its appeal options.
