With today’s ever-present worries about credit card fraud and identity theft comes a relatively new product category: Protective RFID-blocking wallets, bags, and contactless protector cards. These items are positioned as creating a barrier against RFID skimming, which is when criminals steal information from the increasing number of credit cards, drivers’ licenses, passports, and so on that are embedded with radio frequency identification (RFID) chips.
Some of the property types that have been active in this sector to date include:
- Art, artists, and designers. This month, Myne Cards licensed images of the late artist Beryl Cook, represented by This Is Iris, for a line of contactless protector cards. Myne also did a deal last year with the National Gallery, through agency JELC, for protector cards featuring images by Monet, Van Gogh, and Bosschaert the Elder. Graphics and More makes credit card blocker sleeves under license from Home State Apparel, a marketer of clothing, accessories, and home goods featuring the word “home.” surrounded by the outline of each state. Stationery licensee Blueprint Collections and licensor Emma Bridgewater sell a protective passport holder.
- Adventure and travel brands. Properties such as National Geographic, Eddie Bauer, and Samsonite all offer RFID-blocking bags and wallets, some licensed and some manufactured in-house. Back in 2010, Travelocity was a pioneer in the RFID category, signing Kena Kai for wallets and passport holders with RF shielding.
- Sports and outdoors properties. Rico Industries markets RFID-protective billfolds under its licenses for the NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL, as well as for a range of colleges and universities. Other properties, from Realtree to Premier League football clubs, have also entered the category.
IP owners—in these three sectors and beyond—most often add RFID-blocking wallets, bags, and other items to their rosters of licensed merchandise as an add-on to an existing accessories, gift, or stationery licensee’s product array rather than by forging a separate deal.
It should be noted that some experts question the effectiveness of many products billed as RFID-blockers. Others assert, more fundamentally, that RFID-barrier technology is not necessary at all, since RFID-skimming of personal data from credit cards, passports, and the like is a rarity. That said, RFID protection is likely to appeal to many consumers who do not want to take a chance when it comes to protecting their personal data, not just online, but offline as well.
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