Charter Pacific acquires biometric security patents in Securicom liquidation

Charter Pacific has acquired a portfolio of patents for logical and physical access control with biometrics from the liquidator of Securicom, according to a company announcement. The two companies have had a contractual arrangement regarding patent portfolio acquisition “for some years,” and Charter Pacific has supported and funded Securicom in the past, Charter Pacific Executive Chairman Kevin Dart told Biometric Update in an email.

The patents were granted in the U.S., France, Germany, U.K., the Netherlands, Belgium, China, Australia and Canada for biometric signature enrollment technologies for mobile devices, the company announced. The patents cover software, hardware and methods, with the earliest biometric enrollment patents dating back to August 13, 2003.

Dart says Charter Pacific is now finalizing its commercialization strategy for the portfolio, and may expand it. The company is in talks with potential licensees and investors domestically and internationally, and has also received reports of potential infringers of certain patents with the portfolio in “a wide variety of market sectors.”

A Remote Entry System developed by Securicom involves different cases of a user enrolling a biometric signature into their own mobile device to access locked applications, accounts and other protected features in banking, payment systems and device security. Other patented technology may involve biometric smartcards where a number of fingerprint presses are necessary to enroll a fingerprint signature, and smartphones to collect biometric measures for a biometric signature which is authenticated to access features. The U.S., European, and Australian patents all refer to transmitter subsystems, and variously refer to smartcards, multiple biometric inputs creating a biometric signature, and different capture and storage methods.

Additional granted patents for the U.S. include “(e)nhancing the response of biometric access systems” through facial recognition or fingerprints as primary biometrics and voiceprint as a secondary biometric, and “(i)mproving card device security using biometrics” which discusses technology relevant to biometric smartcards.

Australian banking industry veteran David Murray AO is a co-author of one of the family of patents, and also recently became a shareholder in Charter Pacific, suggesting an obvious possible commercial market.

Charter Pacific won a court order against Securicom, Microlatch, and inventor Christopher Burke involving the patents in December.

This post was edited at 8:16 pm on February 13, 2020, to note the legal dispute over ownership of the patents.

Article Topics

biometric enrollment  |  biometric identification  |  biometrics  |  Charter Pacific Corporation  |  licensing  |  mobile device  |  patents