More info on the 3M/Envisionware Lawsuit
2009 October 22
Mick Fortune wrote an interesting blog post about the lawsuit by 3M.
He also shared the actual complaint, which is an interesting read of you’re a dork like me.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – librarians will run around like they’re on fire if they think legislation will take money out of their pockets, but then something like this lawsuit happens and well…*taps microphone*…uh, is this thing ON??????
If 3M wins the lawsuit, they basically will become the only game in town when it comes to RFID. That could change pricing, that could change supply (and demand).
More later…
I will first admit that I did not spend a lot of time reading through the finer points of the complaint or evaluate all of the details….but…strictly from someone that runs a company that competes in this space, there have been a lot of “liberties” taken by smaller firms in this arena to use RFID technology as a “smoke and mirrors” bait to catch customers. By over promising potential customers with the benefits of RFID, many of these firms left a bitter after-taste to those libraries that fell for it. As good as RFID is, its not a panacea for all evil, and yet many were lead to believe that all of the circulation/inventory/security related problems would all go away – well, millions of dollars later, life is not as rosy. In some weird way, I hope that this lawsuit will force some to pay attention a bit more.