MCLEAN, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Kapsch TrafficCom North America (Kapsch) has been notified by the International Bridge, Tunnel & Turnpike Association (IBTTA) that the Open Standard Time Division Multiplexing protocol (TDM) sponsored by Kapsch has been approved to begin the testing phase of the National Toll Protocol selection process. This selection reinforces Kapsch’s consistent and strong commitment to open standards and interoperability within the Electronic Tolling Solutions industry. Open standard communication protocols are critical to meeting the goals of the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) enacted in 2012 in the US, which mandates national interoperability of electronic toll collection programs within four years of its enactment.
In 2013 Kapsch released and published its TDM specification, enabling open and free access to developers seeking to use and implement the protocol. Concurrently, Kapsch also has been a strong advocate of the other open-standard NTP final candidate – ISO 18000-6C. ISO 18000-6C is an open-communication standard that is used globally for a wide variety of applications and within numerous industries, including electronic tolling. Indeed, the availability of developing economically advantageous applications using the ISO 18000-6C technology are key to its broad adaptation and appeal to industries with high transaction volumes such as electronic tolling.
“Kapsch is a firm believer that using open, non-proprietary protocols are in the public good and are critical to facilitate national electronic tolling interoperability. They accelerate adoption of electronic toll collection, promote competition, and encourage additional investment – all of which result in higher-performing, lower-cost systems that deliver greater value to both road authorities and road users,” said Chris Murray, president and CEO of Kapsch TrafficCom North America. Murray added, “Kapsch will continue to support and advocate open-communication and RFID standards, will defend itself and its customers’ rights to offer such technologies to consumers and the marketplace, and will continue to provide high quality products and support to our customers using these important technologies.”
To this end, Kapsch has vigorously resisted proprietary claims over ISO 18000-6C intellectual property. Kapsch is currently challenging the validity and enforceability of certain patents held by Neology, Inc. in Federal court, and at the United States Patent Office (USPTO) that purport to cover the application of ISO 18000-6C to tolling. Importantly, the USPTO already determined that the validity of four of the asserted Neology patents is questionable, either in large part or in their entirety, and instituted Inter Partes Reviews (IPRs), stating that Kapsch had demonstrated a “reasonable likelihood” that certain Neology’s challenged patents were invalid. In addition to the USPTO reviews, the Federal court will also evaluate the validity and applicability of all Neology’s asserted patents. Kapsch maintains that ISO 18000-6C is an open standard in the same vein as TDM, and that therefore the Neology patents are invalid and/or inapplicable to electronic tolling applications.
Kapsch TrafficCom is a provider of intelligent transportation systems (ITS) in the application fields of road user charging, urban access and parking, road safety enforcement, commercial vehicle operations, electronic vehicle registration, traffic management and V2X cooperative systems. Kapsch TrafficCom covers with end‐to-end solutions the entire value creation chain of its customers as a one‐stop shop, from components and design to the installation and operation of systems. The core business is to design, build and operate electronic toll collection systems for multilane free flow traffic.
References in 44 countries on all continents make Kapsch TrafficCom a recognized supplier of electronic toll collection systems worldwide. As part of the Kapsch Group, a family‐owned Austrian technology group founded in 1892, Kapsch TrafficCom, headquartered in Vienna, Austria, has subsidiaries and representative offices in 33 countries. In North America, the company operates offices in the United States in California, Georgia, Kentucky, New Jersey, New York, Texas and Virginia, as well as in Canada and Mexico. Kapsch TrafficCom AG has been listed on the Vienna Stock Exchange (KTCG) since 2007.
For additional information, visit www.kapsch.net.
