BT Fighting for "RAND" Hyperlink Patent

[Seth Johnson <seth.johnson@RealMeasures.dyndns.org>]

(Forwarded from Interesting People list,
farber@cis.upenn.edu)

-------- Original Message --------
Date: Sat, 09 Feb 2002 13:18:55 -0500
From: David Farber <dave@farber.net>


From: "the terminal of Geoff Goodfellow" <geoff@iconia.com>


http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20020207/wr/tech_bt_patent_dc_1.html

BT in Fight to Establish Web Surfing Patent
By Bernhard Warner and Eric Auchard


LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Imagine if one company held the
right to collect a fee each time an Internet user clicked on
a Web site link and jumped to another Web page.

It may sound far-fetched, but a U.S. federal court will hear
preliminary arguments next week to determine if this most
elemental of Internet activities is the business property of
a lone company, protected in the form of a patent.

BT Group Plc believes it holds such a patent covering
''hypertext links'' -- the illuminated text on a Web page
that enables users to surf from page to page with the click
of a mouse. On Monday, BT will go to court to try to cash in
on it.

--SNIP--

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20020207/wr/tech_bt_patent_dc_1.html

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