I don't have time to really dig into this, but I'll offer the following lay opinion anyway: The idea of putting an RFID chip in a silicone band per se strikes

I don't have time to really dig into this, but I'll offer the following lay opinion anyway: The idea of putting an RFID chip in a silicone band per se strikes me as obvious, in the sense that someone who needed to track people in a confined space would be likely to think of it themselves, once they were aware of the existence of the component technologies. A patent is a deal that the people make with an inventor: in exchange for the publication of your invention, we give you a time-limited monopoly on it. In order for this to be a good deal for us, the intellectual contribution of your idea to the state of the art needs to be significant. If someone else is likely to have the same idea, then granting you a patent is a very bad deal: you get a license to sue, and the people get nothing of any value in exchange. (Aside: note that this is a fundamentally economic judgment, not a legal one. I think some training in economics should be required for patent examiners.) Now, that said, I haven't looked at the patent. It may be that there is more to it than this; that there were specific technical difficulties that had to be overcome. Just for example, let's suppose that in early prototypes, the chip had a tendency to work its way to the surface of the silicone and fall out. The solution to that problem might well be nonobvious and deserving of a patent. But you haven't mentioned anything like that.