Thumbs up from me Joewolf - thanks for such a detailed...

Thumbs up from me Joewolf - thanks for such a detailed explanation. The IP picture is a bit clearer now.

Although, it doesn't exactly fill me with enthusiasm. It sounds like the IP is effectively software and business processes. I can't imagine it would be too difficult for a competitor to source the same or similar meters & meter data collection/transmission hardware (there's a heap of it already available), and then write some of their own software to process the data and generate bills from (surely couldn't be too difficult?). The software side of things isn't like say facebook or something, where there is a massive first mover advantage. If someone made a new facebook, why would I join when the rest of the world is using something else? Whereas if I am a developer I wouldn't care whose embedded network software my competitors (or even to an extent my own other developments) are using, I would want to use whatever is the best at the time.