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.