| MANHASSET, N.Y. — Agilent Technologies Inc. (Palo Alto, Calif.) said it has obtained a patent that describes a method to use the Universal Serial Bus (USB) to communicate with a message processing device, including some aspects of GPIB emulation. USB, an industry standard for connecting peripherals to PCs and laptops, is incorporated in Agilent's test instruments and I/O converters. Agilent applied for the patent in December 2000 and was issued U.S. patent 6,718,412 B2 in April 2004. Agilent's interest was to protect the integrity of this technology pending the adoption of a test and measurement class specification within the USB Implementers Forum. "USB is a critical I/O capability for test instrumentation," said Mark Pierpoint, vice president of Agilent's Measurement and Analysis Software Group, in a statement. "The necessity to ensure code communication quality across this bus ensures its present and future utilization in electronic test systems." Agilent will offer its customers patent licenses to implement the test and measurement class specification. Information is available on Agilent's website. | 
