US software giant Oracle announced Friday that it has acquired Chicago-based Strategic Processing which is the owner of a US patent filed in 1986 entitled ”Interactive Market Management System." Oracle describes it as “a seminal patent in the area of interactive, on-line marketplaces.”

The description of the patent appears to be wide enough to potentially cover B2B and B2C e-commerce. The original inventors described it in 1986 as follows:

"Dramatic new efficiencies can be provided by the configuration of on-line interactive concurrent electronic services which creates a marketplace which can serve a wide spectrum of buyers, wholesales, distributors, suppliers, agents, and other service providers within an industry or multiple industries, as well as to freight, financial, and other services deployed over any number of existing communications systems."

Oracle’s acquisition of Strategic Processing also gives it ownership of the Canadian counterpart patent. The company has not yet indicated any plans to enforce the patents.

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