Reply #6: Make sure you choose your chip brand wisely.

[Lisa0825]

My understanding of the situation is this, but this is just based on what our shelter uses... Crystal Tag has been fighting for use of universal chips and scanners, like used in Europe, so that any animal's chip can be read by any scanner. Avid has used encrypted chips so that only their scanners could read their chips, and I think their scanners only read their chips too, but recently Home Again came out with one that would read their encrypted chips! I think it used to be the same with Home Again, but apparently their new scanners and chips are starting to read/be read by others. Wydell explained it this way when a friend of mine asked what to get:

Avid cannot read a universal (ISO) chip-they are the (expletive deleted)s. Home Again's new scanners can read ISO and Avids encrypted chips. Our scanner (Crystal Tag) can read all chips. If she is that worried about it, just tell her to chip her dog with ours and Home Again until these folks are ordered by law to knock it off. That covers all bases.

There have been lawsuits over this because Avid (and possibly others) have claimed infringement on their proprietary chip, but the bottom line should be what is the best way to find a lost pet. So far the concept of Universal chips/readers has been winning, and hopefully it will be the rule soon. In the meantime, I would at the very least stay away from Avid.