"The RFID Consortium, a group of technology companies banding together to pool their RFID-related intellectual property, announced that it has hired MPEG LA, a patent-management organization based in Denver, to determine and evaluate which patents are essential for the UHF RFID standard. Those patents deemed essential will be included in a joint patent portfolio license designed to provide consortium member companies with "fair, reasonable, nondiscriminatory access to this important technology," the consortium said in an issued statement. "