Here is a patent for "A remote access apparatus for providing end-user access through a human interface to a desired remote utility service on a remote host computer". The patent claims are complex, wordy, and repetetive but it seems to claim rights in at least some methods of downloading information from remote databases. According to this Slashdot discussion, the methods are those known as "POST" and "GET", though this is certainly not clear to me from reading the patent claims themselves.

Does the DT use either the POST or GET method ?

T.