The need of having own company identification for mass production of BLE device

[Tai]

Hi everyone,

We're using the "Manufacturer Specific Data" field within its advertising packets to send the firmware version to a phone application. It requires the company_indentifier field and we're using (0x0059) from Nordic for that field in the meantime.

I'm convincing my boss to register for a company identification, but I haven't given very solid reason for this yet. Reading several posts in the forum for this topic, several things came up like: 

• To legally sell the BLE product, a company identification is needed.
• Cannot ship a Bluetooth product without your own company ID.
• The BT SIG will catch you if you try to work around it. Had a few panic projects where the customer neglected that part and needed our help to figure out what to do to "be legit" after they got a nastygram from the SIG.
• Potential future trouble with clashes without company ID

I do appreciate to hear more about the reason behind of registering a company ID for BLE products which will sell to the market. Thanks, Tai!

[Simonr]

Hi

Bluetooth is owned by the Bluetooth SIG, and anyone that are marketing/selling BLE products are required to have a license from the Bluetooth SIG to legally market and sell Bluetooth products. Registering for this license, will AFAIK also get you a company ID you can use for your products. So the main reasoning here is that Bluetooth products should be licensed to not get you in trouble with the Bluetooth SIG down the road and avoid legal actions or similar against you/your company if you go ahead and marketing yourself as a Bluetooth product unlicensed. You can read more about the specifics on Bluetooth's home pages: https://www.bluetooth.com/develop-with-bluetooth/join/ 

Best regards,

Simon