Systems for supply of information, services or products
First Claim
1. A method of operating a system of computers for providing access by users to information, products or services available from a plurality of suppliers, the method comprising:
- (i) providing, under the control of a server computer of said system, a supplier mobile agent program in respect of at least one supplier of information, products or services, said supplier mobile agent program being arranged to communicate with a program executing on a respective host computer associated with said at least one supplier; and
(ii) in response to an access request received from a user, providing at least one program arranged to determine the nature of information, products or services required by said user and, in dependence upon the results of said determination, to select at least one said supplier mobile agent program for communicating with a respective supplier.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method is provided for operating a system of computers for providing access to information, products or services. In the method there is provided, under the control of a server computer, a supplier mobile agent program in respect of at least one supplier of information, products or services for communicating with a respective host computer of that supplier, and, in response to a user access request, there is provided at least one program for determining the nature of information, products or services required by that user and for selecting at least one of the provided supplier mobile agents according to the determined nature of the user'"'"'s access requirements.
43 Citations
19 Claims
-
1. A method of operating a system of computers for providing access by users to information, products or services available from a plurality of suppliers, the method comprising:
-
(i) providing, under the control of a server computer of said system, a supplier mobile agent program in respect of at least one supplier of information, products or services, said supplier mobile agent program being arranged to communicate with a program executing on a respective host computer associated with said at least one supplier; and
(ii) in response to an access request received from a user, providing at least one program arranged to determine the nature of information, products or services required by said user and, in dependence upon the results of said determination, to select at least one said supplier mobile agent program for communicating with a respective supplier. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 18, 19)
-
-
15. An apparatus for providing access by users of the apparatus to information, products or services available from suppliers accessible over a communications network, the apparatus comprising:
-
an agent store for storing at least one mobile agent program;
an input for receiving requests from users for access to information, products or services; and
control means for creating and terminating copies of mobile agent programs stored in said agent store in response to received user access requests and/or to actions arising from the execution of mobile agent programs so created. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17)
-
Specification