define nexbis' technology

Okay, the part I am having real difficulty with is defining what "Nexbis" actually owned that investors paid a total of around $71m for. Not an insignificant sum.

The patent doesn't stack up. Reading it, it conveys very little and seems to me that it is unlikely to be awarded as it stands in any of the countries where it has been filed.

The barcode technology? Refer back to the Sapio acquisition in January 2007 and it is clear that this technology was acquired through Sapio and that Sapio was already working with "several government departments in Asia" on contracts that sound remarkably similar to those acquired under the Nexbis contract rights. Yet Sapio itself was acquired for less than $1m worth of shares.
http://www.asx.com.au/asxpdf/20070117/pdf/310k03tnh1q0pt.pdf

The inventor of the Nexbis technology already worked for ETC as COO.

The consulting division of EMT already existed.

Malaysia already had a smartcard identity card.

Linking federal department databases doesn't sound like a technical breakthrough - though it may be a civil rights one.

Any thoughts?