Juno Online Services LP, which made its name by supplying free internet email service to some six million users, has secured a patent on technology that it claims is central to its business model. The technology enables advertisements to be served up to users while they are offline by downloading them while they are connected and then caching the ads on the user’s computer. Juno has secured exclusive rights to this technology through 2016. The New York company’s senior VP and general counsel Richard Buchband says the patent includes things that are pretty critical to our business model, but also includes key technology. If users click on the ads that are cached on the user’s hard drive, many of them will have also downloaded one or two pages or will expand to show more information. Juno also has proprietary technology that dials into the user’s ISP, quickly downloads the necessary pages to complete the clickthrough and then disconnects, but that is not part of this patent, says Buchband. Juno funds its service through advertising, including the telecommunications costs connecting up to a local PoP. As is common when companies are granted such patents, Buchband says Juno has been contacted by several companies looking to license the technology, presumably in order to avoid being sued for patent infringement. However, he refused to reveal details. Juno launched its first fee-based service in June called Juno Gold, which adds the ability to send attachments and also began to offer Juno web access for $20 a month. Buchband says they are both going very nicely, but it’s too early to put subscriber numbers to them, he says. Juno outsources all network operations to companies such as Concentric Networks Inc, Sprint Corp, and various divisions of MCI WorldCom Inc.
