Who Invented Hyperlinking Order Status or Shipping Info in Emails?

Hyperlinking Order Status in Emails

[Davesbud]

I'm trying to invalidate a patent that claims to have invented placing a hyperlink in an email which in turn provides the recipient with order status or tracking information. You've seen this if you've ordered almost anything online or shipped by FedEx or UPS. I am searching for any web pages, articles, newsgroup/forum discussions, brochures or the like, published before December of 1997, that describes this idea. Any info would be appreciated. Thanks

[plumsauce]

which patent are you referring to?

[john_k]

If the patent claim is "places a link in an email" or something to that effect, then that can only be done by setting the content-type. The content-type email header has been around for a long time. That is what you should track down. When the content type is set to text/html, then it is rendered as an HTML document. And, since the whole point of the content type is to tell the email reader program how to render the contents, I would think this claim would fail the "obviousness" test.

If the patent claim pertains to the email reader software, and the claim is something like "scans the email text to look for apparent World Wide Web URL addresses and then renders those addresses as a clickable link" then I think you would want to scare up some copies of early Mosaic or Netscape 1 and 2. I am pretty sure the email reader that was included had this functionality in it.

[Davesbud]

Thanks for the direction, I'll look into it. Although the key element I'm looking for is that order or shipping information is linked in email, not merely having a hyperlink but to link to information on the status of an order.

Thanks for the suggestions though, every bit helps.

[john_k]

...order or shipping information is linked in email.

They are simply including a URL which stands for Uniform (Universal?) Resource Location. The fact that it points to a specific database record (in this case a shipping record) is not remarkable. This is also an obvious use of existing art.

[john_k]

To elaborate on the "obviousness:" At that point in time the web may have been new (or a complete mystery) to many people, but to those involved in the IT industry, and particularly to those working in the "shrink-wrap" software industry, it had already become an integral portion of doing business. It was fairly common as early as 1995, definitely by 1996 to submit tech-support issues on-line. Followup would often be in the form of an email with a link to your trouble-ticket.

[Davesbud]

Thanks John, being a novice in this specific area I turn to people with more experience. This certainly seems to be the place. I'll follow-up on your suggestions. Any other ideas or specific references you can think of, I'd appreciate. Does Paypal send beer yet, I'd be happy to buy you one.

[tberthel]

It amazes me how people want to patent old business process. I link up with a customer service rep (webapp, person, chat room, or whatever) to provide me my order invoice (html, wml, inperson, voice, or whatever). This is like that 1-Click, caching pages, and other frivolous stuff.

Vote Bush out and the Libertarians in to stop government intervention of IP rights. Nothing is new under the sun as the Bible states. If you want to protect something protect it like you’re supposed too. Do not expect the government to fix everything for you.

By the way now that cloning is out maybe I should patent my Cat and its Meow.

[RossWal]

My cat meows better than yours and has been doing it for longer, I assure you. And before you go THERE we also have some other feline bodily functions in our IP stable......