Patent ID: 7961079

Claim:
A radio communication apparatus configured to read and write data from and to transponders, the radio communication apparatus comprising: a memory unit which stores data to be written to the transponders; a reading unit which, in response to a write command instructing that write data stored in the memory unit should be written to one of the transponders during a data-writing process, performs radio communication with the one of the transponders prior to the data-writing process, wherein the radio communication includes reading data stored in the one of the transponders in a non-contact fashion; a collating unit which, prior to the data-writing process, collates the data read from the one of the transponders by the reading unit with the write data, wherein the collating unit compares a first group of words in the write data to respective words in the read data, and compares a second group of words in the write data to respective words in the read data; and a control unit which performs radio communication with the one of the transponders, thereby writing the write data to the transponder when the collated data are not identical, and skipping the writing of the write data when the collated data are identical, wherein the control unit skips writing the first group of words to the one of the transponders when the first group of words matches the respective words in the read data, writes the second group of words to the one of the transponders when the second group of words does not match the respective words in the read data, receives a response signal from the one of the transponders after writing the write data to the one of the transponders, and determines whether there is an error in the one of the transponders based on the response signal, and wherein the write data is written to the one of the transponders, in units of words each consisting of a plurality of bytes; the collating unit collates the write data and the data read from the transponder by the reading unit, word by word; and the control unit determines whether the writing of the write data should be skipped, for each word.