NEC Corp and Groupe Bull SA have agreed that NEC will pay a licence fee for use of the Spom patent on the chip used in Bull CP8 Smart Cards: the fee is believed to be around 6% of revenues; Bull has already licensed the technology to three other Japanese companies, Hitachi Ltd, Oki Electric Industrial Co and Toshiba Corp, and the patent is said to be indispensable for the manufacture of Smart Cards; NEC will manufacture the chip for distribution in Japan by the Spom Japan join venture with Bull CP8 and Dai-Nippon Printing Co, while NEC will have exclusive rights to market the chip abroad.
