Hi,

My question is related to an absurd situation that we have here in New
Zealand, which might very soon occur in other countries as well.

A Canadian company DE Technologies have successfully registered a
patent for an online purchase process. They have such patents in US,
Singapore, New Zealand and Australia.

The patent description is quite generic and basically applies to
almost any online transaction system.

DE Technologies claims it invented the process that most companies use
to conduct online transactions.

Several small NZ companies have recently been contacted by DE
Technologies and asked to pay a $10,000 license fees because they have
online transaction systems.

Please find detailed information regarding the situation using the
links below.

http://www.fightthepatent.co.nz/ - a NZ community site set up recently
http://www.fightthepatent.co.nz/background.asp - the patent itself and
some background information.
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&edition=usa&q=%22DE+Technologies%22
- news on the issue.

I am not affected by this crazy situation but being very much in the
online development and business realize that if we don’t oppose such
things they might become a significant threat to the industry.

I would be thankful for any suggestions as to how can we best fight
this patent and DE Technologies.

Thanks you in advance.

Kind regards

Ivan Latunov
------------------
Software Architect
http://ivanweb.com