Abstract: An apparatus is provided that uses a consumable item, of given type, requiring occasional renewal. The apparatus has a first operating mode in which it only works with a subset of consumable items of the given type; the apparatus also has a second operating mode in which it is not restricted to working with consumable items of the aforesaid subset. The apparatus is changed from its first mode to its second mode following a determination that the apparatus has reached a predetermined time or usage threshold for being in its first mode. The change to the second mode is preferably effected in response to a release code generated either by the apparatus itself or by a remote system following the determination that the predetermined time or usage threshold being reached. Advantageously, the consumable items can be used to pass usage data to a remote system.

Abstract: An apparatus is provided that uses a consumable item, of given type, requiring occasional renewal. The apparatus has a first operating mode in which it only works with a subset of consumable items of the given type; the apparatus also has a second operating mode in which it is not restricted to working with consumable items of the aforesaid subset. The apparatus is changed from its first mode to its second mode following a determination that the apparatus has reached a predetermined time or usage threshold for being in its first mode. The change to the second mode is preferably effected in response to a release code generated either by the apparatus itself or by a remote system following the determination that the predetermined time or usage threshold being reached. Advantageously, the consumable items can be used to pass usage data to a remote system.

Abstract: An apparatus is provided that uses a consumable item, of given type, requiring occasional renewal. The apparatus has a first operating mode in which it only works with a subset of consumable items of the given type; the apparatus also has a second operating mode in which it is not restricted to working with consumable items of the aforesaid subset. The apparatus is changed from its first mode to its second mode following a determination that the apparatus has reached a predetermined time or usage threshold for being in its first mode. The change to the second mode is preferably effected in response to a release code generated either by the apparatus itself or by a remote system following the determination that the predetermined time or usage threshold being reached. Advantageously, the consumable items can be used to pass usage data to a remote system.

Abstract: An apparatus is provided that uses a consumable item, of given type, requiring occasional renewal. The apparatus has a first operating mode in which it only works with a subset of consumable items of the given type; the apparatus also has a second operating mode in which it is not restricted to working with consumable items of the aforesaid subset. The apparatus is changed from its first mode to its second mode following a determination that the apparatus has reached a predetermined time or usage threshold for being in its first mode. The change to the second mode is preferably effected in response to a release code generated either by the apparatus itself or by a remote system following the determination that the predetermined time or usage threshold being reached. Advantageously, the consumable items can be used to pass usage data to a remote system.

Abstract: It is often difficult to reliably monitor contract performance and receive timely information as to whether a party is actually going to carry out their contractual obligations. Accordingly the invention provides an apparatus and methods for communicating the changes in states of the contractual commitments of contracting parties according to an agreed commitment model and using agreed messaging protocols. There is a storage facility for the commitment data which is accessible by an encoding engine, in addition to a commitment state store that forms a part of the commitment model and stores the known commitment state of parties. The encoding engine encodes commitment data according to the commitment model and data received by an external information source, before passing the message to a messaging module for formatting and sending out to the other contracting party.

Abstract: Apparatus and method for use in making a purchase decision regarding purchase of a plurality of units of a good or service from a plurality of potential suppliers (14) at one or more purchasing times, the apparatus being arranged to determine, estimate or otherwise obtain one or more outcomes for each purchasing time based on one or more quantities of units (16) of the good or service potentially or actually required to be purchased at the purchasing time and/or predicted fluctuations of price of said good or service during said purchase period and access details (10) of terms under which said good or service may be purchased from each of the potential suppliers (14).

Abstract: Apparatus according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention comprises a contract repository (200) in which details of each of a plurality of contracts established with a supplier of a good or service is stored. Similarly, each of a plurality of purchase orders (30) submitted by one or more buyers are stored in a purchase order repository 300. A subsystem (1) for linking purchase orders (30) to contracts (20) and for aggregating information is provided.

Abstract: A computerised method for improving security in multi-party multivariate negotiation between negotiating participants which communicate using an electronic communications network comprises the steps of: submitting proposals from the participants to the centralised negotiation processor via the electronic communications network; returning compatible proposals to each participant from the centralised negotiation processor; locally assigning a utility score to each compatible proposal based on the participant's preferences over the parameters being negotiated; and submitting the assigned utility scores for the compatible proposals to the centralised negotiation processor from each participant.

Abstract: It is often difficult to reliably monitor contract performance and receive timely information as to whether a party is actually going to carry out their contractual obligations. Accordingly the invention provides an apparatus and methods for communicating the changes in states of the contractual commitments of contracting parties according to an agreed commitment model and using agreed messaging protocols. There is a storage facility for the commitment data which is accessible by an encoding engine, in addition to a commitment state store that forms a part of the commitment model and stores the known commitment state of parties. The encoding engine encodes commitment data according to the commitment model and data received by an external information source, before passing the message to a messaging module for formatting and sending out to the other contracting party.

Abstract: At present, there does not seem to be an expedient and reliable automated way of constructing contracts as existing automated systems only allow the searching and cross-referencing of documents. They do not cater for the process of constructing a contract. Accordingly the invention provides an apparatus and automated method of drafting contracts in a structured model-based manner, re-using existing information. A drafting tool assigns appropriate values to descriptors as defined by a chosen formal contract model. A formatter downloads a layout model and tools from a modeller for creating a structured textual contract on the basis of a contract image stored in an image repository. Reference tags generated by an encoder are used for associating the descriptors of the formal contract to the descriptors of the structured textual contract. The encoder then assembles the required contract according to the descriptors using the drafting tool.

Abstract: It is often difficult to reliably monitor contract performance and receive timely information as to whether a client is actually going to carry out its contractual obligations. Accordingly the invention proposes a method and apparatus for binding business protocols to abstract actions defined in an e-contract. This allows one to separate the creation of business protocols from their regulation. Consequently, e-contracts are published independently from business processes. The binding is achieved by following a binding protocol where an agreement is reached as to how contract actions will be represented concretely by business processes and, in addition, an advisal protocol is defined which allows participants to declare that a stream of messages of a business protocol corresponds to contract action. This allows a third party to monitor the interaction without having to understand the business protocol agreed between primary participants and perform an auxiliary function such as data storage.