FC: More on Digital Angel, chip implants, and human tracking

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

[Copied to press and investor relations reps for Digital Angel. I invite 
the company to reply. Background: http://www.politechbot.com/p-02153.html 
--DBM]

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Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2001 19:13:27 -0700
From: David Alban <extasia () mindspring com>
To: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
Subject: Re: FC: Digital Angel may -- or may not -- soon implant chips in 
humans

Declan,

On Sun, 17 Jun 2001 at 03:40:56 Dwayne Gradin <elchapulin () hotmail com> wrote:
> http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=23232
>
> 'Digital Angel' set to fly tomorrow
> Implant technology to be beta tested on humans

If I were someone who advocated the use of technology to track and
ultimately exercise power over individuals, I would be feeling now
like my wildest dreams were about to come true.

David

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Date: Tue, 19 Jun 2001 17:05:18 +1000
From: Nathan Cochrane <ncochrane () theage fairfax com au>
Organization: The Age newspaper
To: declan () well com
Subject: Re: FC: Digital Angel may -- or may not -- soon implant chips in 
humans

Hi Declan

This looked interesting, so I looked a little further, as you did no
doubt. The "Mark of the Beast" tag is very accurate, given the
circumstances.

Digital Angel owns patents on implanted transmitter technology following
Applied Digital Solutions' $130 million acquisition September 2000 of
Destron Fearing, a company that specialises in implanted animal
trackers. The CEO is trained vet and patent holder, Dr Randolph K.
Geissler.

"Prior to joining Digital Angel Corporation, Geissler served as Chief
Executive Officer of Destron Fearing, a position he held since November
1993. He also served as Interim Chief Executive Officer during the
merger of Destron/IDI and Fearing Manufacturing Co., Inc., a company he
owned since 1987. Geissler also was President and Chief Executive
Officer of Fearing. Prior to 1987, he held a variety of positions with
Fearing, including product manager and director of corporate research
and development-ectoparaciticides"
http://www.digitalangel.net/about/exec.htm

An ectoparaciticide is a drug for external use intended to prevent,
destroy, repel, or mitigate parasites in or on animals.

This is what Geissler said about the merger, March 6, 2000:

"Our background, skill set and established track record of success are
an excellent fit with Applied Digital's plans for competing in the
tracking and monitoring business," Geissler said.
- http://www.digitalangel.net/press/pr_2000/pr_03_06_00.htm

Parent company, Applied Digital Solutions, chairman and CEO, Richard J.
Sullivan went further.

"Clearly, Destron Fearing is a highly successful and respected company
in the animal monitoring arena," Sullivan said. "The fact that it's a
leader in electronic monitoring technologies fits right in with our
focus on e-business-to-business solutions. We're particularly excited
about the potential for incorporating Destron Fearing and Digital
Angel.net's data and technologies into the ASP (Application Service
Provider) strategy we announced recently."
- http://www.digitalangel.net/press/pr_2000/pr_03_06_00.htm

Why would you put the CEO of an implant animal tracking company in
charge of an e-commerce division?

This is from the background to the acquisition, from a press release at
the time, mirrored below:

"In December of 1999, Applied Digital Solutions announced that it had
acquired the patent rights to a miniature digital transceiver -- which
it has named Digital Angel -- implantable within the human body that
could be used for a variety of purposes, such as providing a
tamper-proof means of identification for enhanced e-commerce security,
locating lost or missing individuals, tracking the location of valuable
property and pets, and monitoring the medical conditions of at-risk
patients. The implantable device sends and receives data and can be
continuously tracked by GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) technology."
- http://home.iae.nl/users/lightnet/world/updatedigitalangel.htm

Digital Angel chief scientist is Dr Peter Zhou counts among his patents
anti-shoplifting tag systems -- "US5146204: Theft detection apparatus
and flattened wire target and method of making same" and "US5029291:
Electromagnetic sensor element and methods and apparatus for making and
using same". His former employer, Knogo, holds 38 patents over similar
technologies, all related to tracking things, usually via surreptitious
means.

There is nowhere on Digital Angel's site where it says it will not
introduce similar implants for people. If it will never introduce them,
let that be declared to the market. But it appears Destron Fearing was
bought specifically for these patents.

"Destron Fearing is the pioneer and developer of syringe injectable,
miniaturized microchip technology for injection under the skin of
animals."
- http://www.destronfearing.com/elect/elect.html

The images of the Destron Fearing implants look a lot like patent
US5963132: Encapsulated implantable transponder, developed by Avid
Identification Systems. That's not surprising. In its prior art claims,
Avid references Destron/IDI's US5211129: Syringe-implantable
identification transponder:

"An improved transponder for transmitting an identification of an animal
or the like is described which is sufficiently miniaturized to be
syringe-implantable, thus avoiding the necessity of surgical
procedures."

Destron/IDI holds patents:
US5166676: Identification system - passive integrated transponder (PIT)
is attached to or embedded in an item to be identified
US5041826: Identification system - A passive integrated transponder
(PIT) is attached to or embedded in an item to be identified.

Destron Fearing has gone so far to find a way for the implant to attach
itself inside a human host once injected:

"The patented BioBond anti-migration cap is a porous polypropylene
polymer sheath attached to RFID microchip implants to impede migration
of the device within animal tissue. The use of the patented BioBond cap
results in increased retention by promoting the development of
fibrocytes and collagen fibers around the implant, thus inhibiting
movement of the implant within the animal."
- http://www.destronfearing.com/elect/elect.html

For Dr. Lawrence Webber to say there are no plans for implant trackers
in humans in the followup article is not consistent with the company's
strategy to acquire intellectual property. You don't pay $130 million
for a company for its intellectual property and then not use it.

If you want to see someting particuarly scary, check out Destron
Fearing's 9 Feb 1998 patent US6095915: Premise identification system.
Geissler shares a credit on the patent.

"An animal tracing system having a parasitic premise information panel
for attachment to the stud of an ear tag for use in determining the
history and origins of an animal after the animal has been slaughtered,
the premise information panel contains a bar code and a numeric code to
reveal an animal's history and origin, the panel having sufficient
strength to remain attached to the identification panel in day-to-day
wear but of sufficient weakness so that a user can remove the premise
information panel from the animal ear tag without removing the ear tag
from the animal carcass and, along with a blood sample, store the panel
therewith until a later date, at which time the premise identification
information can be referred to a blood test reveals that the animal has
a disease. The tainted carcass can be quickly identified by
cross-referencing the premise information panel to the ear tag remaining
on the carcass."
http://www.delphion.com/cgi-bin/viewpat.cmd/US06095915__?OUT_FORMAT=pdf&MODE=fstv

Other patents:
US4885855: Antibacterial attachment
US4741117: Animal ear tag
US4497321: Ear tag applicators
US4209924: Marking tag

BTW Digital Angel COO is Mercedes Walton, who was chair of Project
Nigel, an online music selling joint venture between AT&T, BMG
Entertainment, Matshushita Electric, Inc., and Universal Music Group.
Nigel crashed and burned. Can you imagine a tracking system that could
tell when you had swapped songs over Napster, then dobbing you in to the
local police, complete with your location accurate to within a few
meters?
http://www.bizreport.com/news/2000/01/20000119-3.htm

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