Internet commerce software company Open Market Inc has secured three patents from the US Patent and Trademark Office covering three of its core products, Transact 4 LiveCommerce and Folio and is set to start licensing the technology.
The payment patent covers secure real-time payment using debit and credit cards and was filed way back on December 16 1993. It’s thought that date could cause concern around the industry as there are likely to be many other companies using similar technologies by now. The second patent covers network sales, in particular the use of electronic shopping carts. It also covers the passing of payments and purchase information through a URL.
The final patent, the session identifier patent covers the ability to detect where users go on a web site, so patterns of behavior can be tracked and exploited for advertising or other purposes. Burlington, Massachusetts-based Open Market announced Transact 4.0 last week.
