From: Salvador Minguijon Perez To: s.minguijon@teleline.es Sent: Friday, April 27, 2007 6:59 PMSubject: “Pay as you drive” Information 

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen, 

We are living some intense activity moments around the projects “Pay as you drive”, although we know that only a small part of what happens transcends openly as most of the conversations and treatments are confidential. 

In some case this precipitation is motivated by the need to make a decision with regards to the participation in the auction of the patent EP0700009 that will take place in
Munich the day May 15. For questions regarding the Auction and access to the Auction’s Virtual Data Room, interested bidders may contact Boris Peters (Auction Manager) from IP Auctions GmbH by email peters@ip-auction.eu or phone +49 – 40 87 87 90 – 220. 

I have recently published an article in my blog with respect to this topic   ” Reason to bid in the auction of the patent EP0700009, if you want to participate in the project Pay_As_You_Drive “. 

It will be also decisive the conclusions obtained in the event organized by l’Assurance L’Argus the day June 28. In which it is expected that Mr Didier Gasse, of French CNIL, explains the rules that should be followed in the acquisition, processed and storage of information so that it is guaranteed that the project “Pay as you drive” doesn’t infringe rights of the users’ intimacy. Without any doubt, these rules will become the world reference and will solve the uncertainty that is generated when it is necessary to define the concrete solutions of the project. 

In the
United States this project has a firm support of the State, because the objectives of being able to reduce the use of the private vehicles, traffic jams and emission of greenhouse gases. This month we have received more precise news of the project in which Unigard, The King College and IMS participate and the second report of the project that Progressive leads has also been published. 

In
England, the government is looking for formulas to implant an unavoidable Road Charge in a voluntary way using incentives to people that adopt the system. It is contemplated to use the technological platform developed by Norwich Union and is also supporting other services offered by the RAC. Obviously it is a solution which is pragmatic, immediate and of a sufficiently verified reliability. This would also be a   recognition to the enormous effort that Norwich Union has carried out becoming the world reference of this project. 

A recognition that acquires more value when we read the last number of the Insurance IP Bulletin with respect to the innovative capacity of the sector of the insurance. And that also reminds us that we should recognize the development effort that Hollard is making in South Africa, we hardly receive news of their activity. 

The surprise of this month has been when WGV announced that it will throw its project imminently and that its technological partner will be HP instead of T-Systems. 

It is obvious that behind this project there are other strategic partners that would have already been developing the project for some time. Without this premise it doesn’t seem believable that WGV looses a partner like T-Systems, company of the group Deutsche Telekom whose technology was basic to be able to make the German Road Toll project work and that is one of the few companies that can demonstrate experience and results in a similar project. 

We could also imagine that T-Systems considers the position of WGV as beingnot very ambitious, and that it would establish contact with partners with more international projection and ambition for the execution of the project. 

Regarding new publications, especially interesting are the Frost & Sullivan presentation ‘ Strategic 360 Degree Perspective of the Telematics And Infotainment Markets, An Interactive Session’ and the opinion of Bob Barone of the CSAA. For those that understand German, there are some very interesting comments on the publication “Insurance Trend” of Steria Mummert Consulting. I have upgraded my database Pay as you drive directory and my blog Pay_as_you_drive . 

If somebody wants that their address is erased of my distribution list, please return me this message with the word “DELETE.” 

Yours sincerely. 

 

Salvador Minguijon Perez. 

 

Reason to bid in the auction of the patent EP0700009, if you want to participate in the project Pay_As_You_Drive.

 The project “Pay as you drive”, together with the navigation systems are going to constitute the hardware support on which an exciting range of telematic applications will developed which will completely change the world of transport.

 The navigation systems have been winning market and the projects “Pay as you drive” are overcoming the first commercial tests. Both products are complementary and very attractive by themselves for a significant segment of the population.

 Its success will be catapulted by the urgent necessity to solve two enormous problems: the congestion of road infrastructures and the climatic change. Both problems demand unpopular sacrifices, but their short term consequences don’t leave our political powers another alternative than to face them in an urgent way.

Obviously this will mean an important increment in the telematics market but also a restructuring of the same one, as it will change from being a professional market to a great public’s market.

Consequently, not all companies will be able to handle this change. There are many companies that will have their place in the market because of their own merits, such as IBM, CERT, Siemens, Progressive, Norwich Union, etc. but the rest and majority of the companies will have to establish alliances, collaborations and will bet firmly for the development of these projects.

 One of the key dates is May 15, day in which the patent EP0700009 will be auctioned by IP Auctions GmbH in Munich.

This event will define the companies that will develop the project in the most important countries in Central Europe and this will also give them the possibility to participate at world level.

If the project is successful, many companies will try to avoid the rights corresponding to this patent and the owner company will have to defend them. The more success is predicted to the project, the more aggressive will be the attitude of the competitors.

If the patent is acquired in alliance with other partners, this defence will constitute a nexus of union of the organizations. Without any doubt, this defence will be coordinated and shared with Norwich Union, company with which the new owner will share the property of the patent in some countries.

 The competitors that don’t respect the rights of the patent will have two problems:

The insurance companies could not participate in a great project of this type without infringing rights of the patent and facing the possible consequences of litigation.

It is very difficult to avoid the derived rights of the patent EP0700009 as neither the elimination of some of their characteristics (especially those of more social character) neither an amplification of the same ones avoids the rights of the patent.

If your company wants to participate in some issue of the development of the system “Pay as you drive”, you will have to dedicate many efforts to it. These efforts can be based on your own intellectual property if you become the owner of the patent on May 15.

 If somebody else becomes the owner, you will have to depend on him as it will be the patent owner’s decision under which conditions you may enter the train of “Pay As You Drive”.

Now it is the moment to catch this train or to wait for the following. However the following train might not have seats, if there will be another train at all.