ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 21 -- United States Patent no. 12,688,392, issued on July 21, was assigned to Toshiba Tec K.K. (Tokyo).

"Wireless tag communication apparatus, wireless tag communication system, and communication method for a wireless tag communication apparatus" was invented by Sunao Tsuchida (Mishima Shizuoka, Japan) and Jun Yaginuma (Izunokuni Shizuoka, Japan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "In accordance with an embodiment, a wireless tag communication apparatus transmits a read command designating a first state as a flag state of a wireless tag. The wireless tag communication apparatus acquires identification information returned from a wireless tag whose flag state is the first state...