Newport Digital Technologies Inc. recently announced that it has signed a licensing agreement with Microsoft to develop RFID (Radio Frequency Identification Technology) related applications for its Windows Mobile platform, utilizing the MS Windows Mobile operating system. NDT will offer a comprehensive line of mobile computing products, targeting RFID field applications for use in asset tracking, inventory management, and POS for various B2B markets.

NDT’s CEO, Gary DeMel, a twenty-eight year veteran of the semiconductor and high-tech industries, commented on the agreement. “We are very excited to work with Microsoft’s technology and business teams to develop the next generation of RFID computing devices by utilizing Windows Mobile with customized application suites. Microsoft, which provides software and hardware products and solutions worldwide, is one of the world’s premier companies and we are looking forward to a successful licensing agreement with them.”

Daren Mancini, General

The driving philosophy of corporate America used to be based on the principle of in-house development. If it wasn’t made in-house, companies simply weren’t interested. Companies wanted things over which they had full control, and from which they could enjoy 100% of the profits. Total independence. Total control. If a good idea came along that wasn’t developed in-house, the temptation was to find some way to tweak it and claim that it was developed in-house.

All of this led to some pretty nasty lawsuits. One of the best known cases, popularized in the movie Flash Of Genius, was that of Robert Kearns. Kearns was a Detroit engineer who developed the electronic intermittent windshield wiper for automobiles, getting his first patent for it in 1967. When he failed to get the major automakers to buy his idea and then saw them come