British Technology Group, or BTG, is an intellectual property
and technology commercialisation firm. It has been around for over
50 years, in various guises. It was originally set up in 1948 by
the UK Government to commercialise publicly funded research.
Initially known as the National Research Development Corporation,
in 1981 it joined together with the National Enterprise Board to
form BTG.
Over the years it has been responsible for patenting such
inventions as the drug Interferon and Magnetic Resonance Imaging.
In 2002 it acquired two patents from on-line information solutions
company Infonautics, which had developed technology that enables
the efficient tracking of the movement of internet users between
web sites, and is used in certain on-line marketing programmes.
The two patents have now formed the basis for actions against
Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, Netflix and Overstock.com, alleging
infringement and seeking unspecified damages for past infringing
activity and an injunction against future use of the
technology.
The suit, filed with the Federal District Court in Delaware,
follows unsuccessful efforts by BTG to reach an agreement to sell
or license the patents to the defendants, says the company, which
in July filed actions against Microsoft and Apple over alleged
infringements of six US patents relating to the downloading of
updates for software and virus protection.
"We believe the patents are fundamental to the tracking of users
for the on-line marketing programmes used by Amazon.com,
BarnesandNoble.com, Netflix and Overstock.com, and that the
commercial potential of the patents is significant," said Ian
Harvey, BTG's CEO.
There has been no comment from any of the defendants as yet.
