Oh and I'm a Dane so I don't accept any claims either:-)
Norwegian has patent on netcommerce - sits on a potencial goldmine.
A man from Kristiansand filed for patent on the forms used in todays netshops back in 1993.
By Einar Ryvarden First published: 28.09.99 15:28 Last modification: 28.09.99 17:13
Oslo (Sep 28th 99) - The small company Bellboy based in Kristiansand, Norway secured patent on Internet commerce in Norway and Europe in 1993. Now the company is going to demand license fees from everybody who sells goods and services on the Internet and over the phone.
The small compny Bellboy International has a patent on Internet-commerce that allows it to demand license fees from all Internet shops in Europe and possibly even the USA till 2013. With help from lawyers they will demand agreements and fees from the entire Internet trade.
Rolf Wilhelmsen has "shot the Golden Bird": Dec 17th 1993 he filed for patent on a method to do realtime commerce on IT networks or phonesystems. Around that time the WWW and the Mosaic Client were introduced.
But the unbelievable slow filing procedure means, that Bellboy just now here in 1999 can start requiring license fees from everybody who has launched telephone or internet shopping systems. Among these are the international airline ticket booking system Amadeus og Norwegian shops like Rimi, Onlineclub and Filmweb. The Bellboy patent siffers from other patents in that it only describes a method to do things not a technical principle.
- Our patent has been a well-kept secret but now we are going to make it well-known. Most people will be chocked when they understand what this is. You will have to be very clever if you want to avoid this patent and do commerce on the net at the same time says Wilhelmsen to digi.no.
Øystein Jørgensen, CEO in Nordlandsdata has already received a demand from Bellboy and is very sceptical about the patent. Nordlandsdata has made Filmweb, the system who lets you book movie tickets on the net (in Norway, ed:-).
- I think Bellboy has patented a very general and wellknown idea. I take my hat off to Bellboy but the Patent Office has handled this patent application very badly. Now a lot of companies have to use a lot of energy, time and money on lawyers, Jørgensen states to digi.no
Wilhelmsen admits that he has had a lot of luck, but that it is possible to patent a method that later affects a lot of people later. Wilhelmsen, who started the Internet Service www.bilguiden.no compares his patent with the telephone or the cheese knife.
He foresees that a lot of people will question Bellboys plans to ask license fees now, long after the internet gained it's success.
- We may be percieved like vultures but we had a good idea and filed for the patent in 1993. I know ow important patents are, because I filed for my first patent 25 years ago, he states.
He wont even give a hint on how high the license fees will be. But alone an agreement with Amadeus will yield astronomical Revenues if Bellboys gets a cent from every European air traveler from now to 2013.
To be able to collect the license fees from the internet shops in Norway and the rest of Europe, Bellboy secured NKR 6,000,000 (around USD 771,000) last X-Mas.
- Now we are looking for even more money and alliances with real investors, Wilhelmsen states, but won't mention any names. digi.no's sources indicate that Jan Haudemann Andersen, a well-known figure in the Norwegian finance world, is one of those possible investors that Bellboy has contacted
The company (Bellboy) needs investments to finance the legal battles that corp. in the US, Canada and Japan will raise to fight the patent. Bellboy will also reestablish its foundation a phonebooking system for hotel reservations which the company mad e together with Telenor Link (former Telenor Marktech. The purpose for the system is to sell reservation services to several companies.
Bellboys Patent
Norwegian Patent no 17 98 88 describes a system that allows a user accessabillity to view the delivery situation then order and succedent get a order confirmation in realtime.
Thus the patent covers most booking and trade systems on phonelines and the internet. You can read information on the patent in this patent data base : http://patent.womplex.ibm.com/details?pn=EP0073844 6B1
It is probably Europe as the Middle East had better weather. The clouds covered most of Central Europe from England in the North West (though Land's End seemed to have a mostly clear sky, and Stone Henge had a better view than in Stuttgart, Germany) to Austria and parts of Hungary. Romania had a good view with almost clear skies I think.
We had the MIR pictures on Live during the Eclipse in Denmark and I suspect in other European countries as well.
It Seems to me that they've decided to take it down as the URL no longer works. Lets hope they've been/.ted and that they stay off the Dark Side from now on.
Just like commercial/professional writers protect their intelectual property so should the OpenSource/OpenContent community do. If for nothing else than keeping control of the work that is done in order to keep it OS/OC.
I don't know if they have harmed US Citizens. But it seems they have been forthcoming with information to third-parties.
While this is more or less "proven" (how do you prove Gov. sanctioned espionage?) it seems to be well founded in the truth.
Several non-US companies (including a lot of European companies) has lost contracts to US companies because these have been "informed" by the NSA with the info that Echelon has provided about competitors biddings and projects.
It also scares me that someone is sifting through my phonecalls and email. If the NSA has the computer power to search for words like "bomb" etc they also have the power to search for other more "peaceful" words.
We are moving towards a "Big Brother" society. Who decides if a mail or phone conversation is "dangerous" or not?
Slashdot Mirror
Here's my go at it:
:-)
:-).
4 6B1
Oh and I'm a Dane so I don't accept any claims either
Norwegian has patent on netcommerce - sits on a potencial goldmine.
A man from Kristiansand filed for patent on the forms used in todays netshops back in 1993.
By Einar Ryvarden
First published: 28.09.99 15:28 Last modification: 28.09.99 17:13
Oslo (Sep 28th 99) - The small company Bellboy based in Kristiansand, Norway secured patent on Internet commerce in Norway and Europe in 1993. Now the company is going to demand license fees from everybody who sells goods and services on the Internet and over the phone.
The small compny Bellboy International has a patent on Internet-commerce that allows it to demand license fees from all Internet shops in Europe and possibly even the USA till 2013. With help from lawyers they will demand agreements and fees from the entire Internet trade.
Rolf Wilhelmsen has "shot the Golden Bird": Dec 17th 1993 he filed for patent on a method to do realtime commerce on IT networks or phonesystems. Around that time the WWW and the Mosaic Client were introduced.
But the unbelievable slow filing procedure means, that Bellboy just now here in 1999 can start requiring license fees from everybody who has launched telephone or internet shopping systems. Among these are the international airline ticket booking system Amadeus og Norwegian shops like Rimi, Onlineclub and Filmweb. The Bellboy patent siffers from other patents in that it only describes a method to do things not a technical principle.
- Our patent has been a well-kept secret but now we are going to make it well-known. Most people will be chocked when they understand what this is. You will have to be very clever if you want to avoid this patent and do commerce on the net at the same time says Wilhelmsen to digi.no.
Øystein Jørgensen, CEO in Nordlandsdata has already received a demand from Bellboy and is very sceptical about the patent. Nordlandsdata has made Filmweb, the system who lets you book movie tickets on the net (in Norway, ed
- I think Bellboy has patented a very general and wellknown idea. I take my hat off to Bellboy but the Patent Office has handled this patent application very badly. Now a lot of companies have to use a lot of energy, time and money on lawyers, Jørgensen states to digi.no
Wilhelmsen admits that he has had a lot of luck, but that it is possible to patent a method that later affects a lot of people later. Wilhelmsen, who started the Internet Service www.bilguiden.no compares his patent with the telephone or the cheese knife.
He foresees that a lot of people will question Bellboys plans to ask license fees now, long after the internet gained it's success.
- We may be percieved like vultures but we had a good idea and filed for the patent in 1993. I know ow important patents are, because I filed for my first patent 25 years ago, he states.
He wont even give a hint on how high the license fees will be. But alone an agreement with Amadeus will yield astronomical Revenues if Bellboys gets a cent from every European air traveler from now to 2013.
To be able to collect the license fees from the internet shops in Norway and the rest of Europe, Bellboy secured NKR 6,000,000 (around USD 771,000) last X-Mas.
- Now we are looking for even more money and alliances with real investors, Wilhelmsen states, but won't mention any names. digi.no's sources indicate that Jan Haudemann Andersen, a well-known figure in the Norwegian finance world, is one of those possible investors that Bellboy has contacted
The company (Bellboy) needs investments to finance the legal battles that corp. in the US, Canada and Japan will raise to fight the patent. Bellboy will also reestablish its foundation a phonebooking system for hotel reservations which the company mad e together with Telenor Link (former Telenor Marktech. The purpose for the system is to sell reservation services to several companies.
Bellboys Patent
Norwegian Patent no 17 98 88 describes a system that allows a user accessabillity to view the delivery situation then order and succedent get a order confirmation in realtime.
Thus the patent covers most booking and trade systems on phonelines
and the internet. You can read information on the patent in this patent data base : http://patent.womplex.ibm.com/details?pn=EP007384
It is probably Europe as the Middle East had better weather. The clouds covered most of Central Europe from England in the North West (though Land's End seemed to have a mostly clear sky, and Stone Henge had a better view than in Stuttgart, Germany) to Austria and parts of Hungary. Romania had a good view with almost clear skies I think.
We had the MIR pictures on Live during the Eclipse in Denmark and I suspect in other European countries as well.
It Seems to me that they've decided to take it down as the URL no longer works. Lets hope they've been /.ted and that they stay off the Dark Side from now on.
Just like commercial/professional writers protect their intelectual property so should the OpenSource/OpenContent community do. If for nothing else than keeping control of the work that is done in order to keep it OS/OC.
I don't know if they have harmed US Citizens. But it seems they have been forthcoming with information to third-parties.
While this is more or less "proven" (how do you prove Gov. sanctioned espionage?) it seems to be well founded in the truth.
Several non-US companies (including a lot of European companies) has lost contracts to US companies because these have been "informed" by the NSA with the info that Echelon has provided about competitors biddings and projects.
It also scares me that someone is sifting through my phonecalls and email. If the NSA has the computer power to search for words like "bomb" etc they also have the power to search for other more "peaceful" words.
We are moving towards a "Big Brother" society. Who decides if a mail or phone conversation is "dangerous" or not?