Dell sued for infringement of international e-commerce patent

DE Technologies v. Dell

DE Technologies owns the patent on multi-lingual e-commerce.  (U.S. Patent No. 6,460,020). The patent, originally filed in 1997, covers a method carried out on a computer that allows international commercial transactions.  Claim 1 of the patent includes the following steps: 

(a) selecting a language from a menu;
(b) selecting a currency from a menu;
(c) selecting a product to be purchased and a destination for shipping;
(d) obtaining from a database i) price information; ii) an international goods classification of the product; and iii) international shipping information;
(e) calculating shipping costs;
(f) determining a total cost;
(g) confirming existence of available funds; and
(h) accepting the order and generating a shipping invoice

Yesterday, BusinessWeek reported that DE has sued Dell for infringement of this patent.  According to the article, If litigation goes forward, it will focus on whether, as DE contends, it really was the first company to demonstrate a system for processing international sales online when it filed for patent protection in 1997.

(Thanks Lisa).