Just two weeks ago, Magic Number highlighted Global e-dentity, a company developing a U.I.D., a form of identification that uses your own body, rather than traditional methods such as passports or driver’s licenses. The previous insight mentioned U.S. Patent Pub. No. 20200348762, directed to identifying whether a user is infected with COVID-19 and potentially granting or restricting access to an area depending on their health state. Global e-dentity’s health-based security system could be of interest to manufacturers of TSA-security systems, such as Leidos, or to IDEMIA‘s global biometric enrollment program, IdentoGO®. 

However, shortly after Global e-dentity’s application published, PopID has burst onto the scene, with its U.S. Patent Pub. No. 20200372743 being directed to a digital door lock capable of allowing entry of an individual through a door based on an immunity status of the individual to a disease such as COVID-19. PopID could represent a challenger to Global e-dentity in securing market share in a new market for enforcement of quarantine and social distancing measures. 

However, upon a closer look, PopID’s technology may be more complimentary to Global e-dentity’s U.I.D., rather than directly competitive. PopID does not focus on a method of retrieving data regarding a user’s immunity condition, but only about using the patient’s immunity condition to restrict or allow access during a digital door lock. On the other hand, Global e-dentity’s patent focus on the acquisition of physical data regarding an individual, without mentioning of the specific use cases of the scanners or any particular hardware. Leidos, in particular, may be interested in a dual acquisition of Global e-dentity and PopID in order to bring new security solutions to critical infrastructure, such as government facilities or space-based structures. 

For more updates on technologies to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, check out the free interactive visual Pandemics Patent Forecast® offered by Magic Number.