AIM Global Publishes RFID Position Statements On RFID Standards and the RFID Regulatory Environment.

WARRENDALE, Pa. -- AIM Global, the industry trade association and worldwide authority on automatic identification and mobility technologies, today published the second in a series of Global Position Statements addressing issues surrounding Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), including both passive and active RFID.

The position statement addressing RFID standards states that "AIM Global supports cooperation between ISO and industry consortia (e.g., EPCglobal, AIAG, and IATA) to eliminate redundant or conflicting efforts, and recommends that industry consortia users and technology providers participate in and support the ISO standards development process."

"Because ISO standards permit the international community of nations to participate in the standards development process, AIM Global supports the development of international standards using the ISO process. Such standards include established international standards for freight containers, smart cards, and animal identification and evolving ISO standards for freight containers, returnable transport items, transport units, product packaging, product tagging, and electronic container seals."

"AIM Global further supports the development of market/industry-specific standards based on ISO technical, data structure, and conformance standards or where the market/ industry standards development serve as an incubation chamber for improvements in existing ISO standards."

"Standards provide a common definition for devices, processes, and applications. Such a common definition provides a means for interoperability among various independent participants in industry. AIM Global promotes and encourages its members to actively participate in such efforts to standardize technology with a view of encouraging market growth."

The regulatory environment position statement emphasizes that, "AIM Global favors a worldwide regulatory environment where RFID users in every country can realize robust, high-performance implementations."

"Even with international standards, national and regional regulatory bodies have the final say in factors that affect the performance and ultimate optimization of RFID systems. AIM Global believes that full market development will only occur when regulations are aligned."

"AIM Global's first objective is to facilitate approval of compatible regulations in all countries. As part of this objective, AIM Global will work through national member organizations to influence the World Trade Organization (WTO) and Radio Telecommunications Union (RTU) to rationalize these factors that influence performance to support the global performance standardization itself.

Additional AIM Global Position Statements to follow will cover other RFID-related issues such as RFID as an enabler in recycling and RFID as a complementary AIDC technology.

About AIM Global

For more than 30 years, AIM Global has served as the association and worldwide authority on automatic identification, data collection and networking in a mobile environment. AIM members are providers and users of technologies, systems, and services that capture, manage, and integrate accurate data into larger information systems.

For more information on AIM Global, its technologies and its members, please visit www.aimglobal.org or www.rfid.org.