General Patent Settles Lawsuit with HID Global over Smart Cards Patents

The following is excerpted from a November 30, 2009 General Patent press release:

General Patent Corporation (GPC), a leading patent licensing and enforcement firm, announced today on behalf of its client, Leighton Technologies LLC, that it has settled all pending lawsuits with HID Global Corporation (HID) of Irvine, Calif., and licensed Leighton’s patents to HID, a leading manufacturer of employee and student ID cards, driver’s licenses and transaction cards such as cashless payment, fare collection, vending and loyalty cards.

Leighton Technologies LLC owns several U.S. Patents that generally relate to the lamination process for RFID (or “contactless”) cards that use an embedded chip to enable secure financial payments and access to secure locations.

All parties to two lawsuits − HID Corporation, Indala Corporation and AccessID, Inc. v. Leighton Technologies LLC and General Patent Corporation which was filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California (CV-SACV05-513) and HID Global Corporation v. Keith R. Leighton which was filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio (1:07CV1972) – agreed to a settlement that included a license for HID Global for the Leighton patents.

“We are very pleased to reach an amicable agreement with HID Global and the other parties to these lawsuits, and to license the Leighton patents to HID,” said Paul Lerner, General Patent’s Sr. Vice President and General Counsel.

HID Global is the second transaction card OEM to license Leighton Technologies’ patents. General Patent granted a license for the Leighton patents to Oberthur Technologies of America Corporation in 2008.