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If your business does international transactions over the internet you could be in for a shock, writes Ashley Balls.
The national media covered a scary story during early July reporting that a Tauranga based e-tailer, www.ProductsFromNewZealand.com had received a 'letter before action' from well-known intellectual property lawyers James & Wells alleging infringement of their client DE Technologies' product. Ordinarily this would have passed unnoticed but the claim sought a licence fee and a percentage of all sales revenue from goods traded internationally over the web.
The plaintiff is a small concern, registered in Delaware. The claim centres on an alleged breach of New Zealand patent No. 505284 which, strangely, covers a process not a specific product/widget and has implications for all international e-tailers here, in the United States and Singapore.
The process, to quote the plaintiff's solicitors, covers the following, summarised steps:
* "Determining a language for the display of product information and determining a currency for pricing.
* "Receiving a customer's selection of at least one product and product destination then accessing a database to...