If you are thinking of starting your own shop or store on the Internet, perhaps as a small sideline to sell local products more widely, you might like to know that there are some minor patent details you will need to take care of.
The screenshot below shows a typical small-scale online store; in this case, it is selling locally-produced videos. As you can see, quite a few of the things we take for granted in an online store (some of which are based on obvious analogues in the real world) are encumbered by patents - the numbers refer to the key below the image.
Patents normally cost a certain percentage of turnover (usually between 2% and 5%, with the percentage tending to go up if turnover is small). Some companies give discounts on the purchase of licenses to several different patents that they own. But the patents mentioned below are are not owned by the same company, so you can't expect to get volume discounts for your store. With luck and a good lawyer, however, you may find that you are able to keep your patent license costs down to around 60% of your turnover.
None of these patents are currently enforceable in some countries (eg India), so if you would like to avoid these "business costs" entirely, the solution is simple - become a citizen of one of these countries, and set up your store there.
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