[bounced for an address oddity]
Now... I've just read this story in a Norwegian net-paper, http://w3.digi.no/digi98.nsf/pub/fi19990928142800er6186312657, saying that a small Norwegian firm called Bellboy took out a patent for net-trade in 1993. The paper says the patentees (?) have patented the concept of real-time transactions on the net.
You may look at the patent here: http://patent.womplex.ibm.com/details?pn=EP00738446B1
If this is true it'll mean a whole lot for e-trade...
Magnus Bernhardsen