Background of the invention Business cards have long been established as a marketing tool to provide customers or clients with a handy reference for contacting the business or a person. One of the major drawbacks with the conventional business cards is that the information conveyed thereon must be limited due to their physical size.

Summary of the invention In accordance with a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a business card comprising access means arranged, in use, to effect access to a computer network for retrieval of information associated with the business card; wherein the access means comprises an electronic data storage means having stored thereon a browser application program, and wherein the access means is arranged, in use, to instruct a computer to execute the browser application program for the retrieval of the information associated with the business card.

Accordingly, the business card can be preferably used to"automatically"convey the information associated with the business card from the computer network, i. e. not limited to the physical size of the business card.

In one embodiment, the computer network is the Internet, and the access means is arranged to effect access to an Internet Web-page on a computer. Accordingly, the

Internet Web-page can be"automatically"accessed, rather than having to e. g. manually input a web-site address printed on the business card.

In one embodiment, the business card is arranged to be inserted into a card reader of the computer for effecting the reading of the access instructions by the computer.

In another embodiment, the access means is arranged in a manner such that the access instructions can be read by the computer by way of a transceiver of the computer.

In another embodiment, the access means is arranged to transmit the access instructions to a receiver of the computer.

Preferably, the business card is further arranged, in use, to function as a telephone card.

Preferred forms of the invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Brief description of the drawings Figure 1 shows a business card embodying the present invention.

Figure 2 shows a system embodying the present invention.

Figure 3 shows another system embodying the present invention.

Figure 4 shows another system embodying the present invention.

Detailed description of preferred embodiments In Figure 1, the business card 10 comprises a chip 12.

The chip 12 may be what is sometimes referred to as a smart card chip, and includes both a data storage component and a central processing unit.

Turning now to Figure 2, if the business card 10 is inserted into a suitable card reader 14 of a computer 16, the central processing unit of the chip 12 instructs the computer 16 to connect to a home page 18 of a web-site address stored in the storage component, through a browser

application installed on the computer 16. The home-page is displayed on a monitor 20 of the computer 16.

In an alternative embodiment shown in Figure 3, a business card 22 comprises a chip 24 and an electro- magnetic transmitter 26. The chip 24 includes both a data storage component and a central processing unit. If the business card 22 is moved in front of a suitable receiver 28 of a computer 30, the chip instructs the computer 30 to connect to a home page 32 of a web-site address stored in the storage component, through a browser application installed on the computer 30. The home-page is displayed on a monitor 34 of the computer 30.

In another embodiment, a business card 36 comprises a bar code 38. If the business card 38 is moved pass a barcode reader 40 of a computer 42, the computer is arranged to retrieve the address of an Internet web-site associated with the business card 38 from an external database, in which the address is stored under the barcode number. The computer 42 is further arranged to connect to the home-page 44 of the web-site associated with the business card 36 through a browser application installed on the computer 42. The home-page 44 is displayed on a monitor 46 of the computer 42.

In this embodiment, the computer 42 accesses the external database through connecting to a preselected web- site through the browser application, the preselected web- site address forming part of an application that runs on the computer 42.

It is noted that in the above description, the computers 16,30 and 42 are set up to be connectable to the Internet. This set-up can be achieved by the various known techniques, for example the use of a modem in conjunction with a telephone line.

Furthermore, in the above description, the computers 16,30 and 42 include software that enables the downloading

of the information received from the business cards 10,22 and 36, respectively.

The business card described above need not be limited to the features described herein, but rather may comprise further functionalities, such as for example being capable of being used as a telephone card.

It will be appreciated by a person skilled in the art that numerous variations and/or modifications may be made to the present invention as shown in the specific embodiments without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention as broadly described. The present embodiments are, therefore, to be considered in all respects to be illustrative and not restrictive.

For example, in other embodiments the browser application may be installed on the computer through the business card, i. e. a chip of the business card may include the browser application for"automatic"installation, in use, if the computer does not have a suitable application pre-installed.

In the claims that follow and in the summary of the invention, except where the context requires otherwise due to express language or necessary implication, the word "comprising"is used in the sense of"including", i. e. the features specified may be associated with further features in various embodiments of the invention.