Overview

     Product Liability is a $700 billion dollar a year problem. Product liability arises when a defective product enters the stream of commerce and is the cause of injury to life, limb or property. Liability is borne by the manufacturer that produced the product, the retailer that sold the product and any other commercial entity that was responsible for placing the product in a position where liability could arise.

     Product manufacturers deal with the problem of product liability by purchasing product liability insurance. But insurance alone is not enough. In order to further reduce the potential for liability, manufacturers and retailers spend money to prevent current consumers from using defective products. This activity is known as product recall.

     Product recall is accomplished in a user-based manner. That is, a manufacturer needs to know who the users of each product are. Generally, users are required to return registration cards. The information from the registration cards is entered into a user database. When a product needs to be recalled, notices are sent by mail to the users using the information in the user database.

     The main problem with the user-based notification mechanism is that the user database is incomplete because users are seldom willing to return registration cards to the manufacturers. Also, the user database has the potential of being inaccurate because users move or dispose of the products. Recall notices are often sent to the wrong address or fail to reach the actual and current user of the product.

     In order to effectively communicate a notice to a product user, ReadyTrace, Inc. has developed a new notification mechanism, product-based notification. The new notification mechanism requires that a developed by ReadyTrace, Inc. tiny receiver be integrated into consumer products. The receiver, which is called Product Notice Receiver or PNR, will allow manufacturers to directly contact the users of their products. In the event of a product recall, a product manufacturer only needs to visit the ReadyTrace web site in order to issue a product recall signal to a class of their products. Once a product recall signal is issued, it will be radiated throughout the Continental United States by the means of a radio signal. Once a targeted PNR receiver detect the product recall signal, it will enable an indicator. Indicia on the product will direct the user to abstain from further use of the product because of the potential for injury. The indicia will also direct the user to visit the manufacturer’s web site or call an 800 number for information regarding the product recall.