Patent ID: 8242907

Claim:
A method of password protecting RFID memory, comprising: providing a passive radio frequency identification (RFID) tag, the passive RFID tag comprising a plurality of RF network nodes mounted on the tag, wherein at least one of the plurality of RF network nodes is in electronic communication with a memory store within the RFID tag, wherein at least a portion of the memory store is a private area of memory that is access password protected, and wherein a password is required to be transmitted from an RFID reader to the RFID tag to access the private area of memory; associating the RFID tag with a component for which access-limited maintenance data is desired; interrogating the RFID tag by the RFID reader, wherein the interrogation from the RFID reader includes the password to extract the access-limited maintenance data; and in response to the password being properly provided by the RFID reader, allowing the access-limited maintenance data to be transmitted from the private area of memory to the RFID reader in order to monitor an access-protected maintenance parameter of the component.