BT Group Loses Hyperlink Patent Case

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

(Forwarded from Digital Bearer Settlement list)

-------- Original Message --------
Date: Fri, 23 Aug 2002 00:43:21 -0400
From: "R. A. Hettinga" <rah@shipwright.com>
To: Digital Bearer Settlement List <dbs@philodox.com>

> http://quote.bloomberg.com/fgcgi.cgi?mnu=news&ptitle=Technology%20UK&tp=ad_uknews&T=news_storypage99.ht&ad=uktechnology&s=APWVW5hWfQlQgR3Jv

Technology UK


BT Group Loses Bid to Sue Prodigy Over Internet Hyperlinking

By Susan Decker
08/22 22:25

White Plains, New York, Aug. 22 (Bloomberg) -- BT Group Plc
lost a bid to claim that Internet service providers were
infringing its patent for a Web linking tool when a judge
dismissed its suit against Prodigy Communications.

BT, formerly known as British Telecommunications, sued SBC
Communications Inc.'s Prodigy service as a test case in its
effort to seek money from every Internet service provider.
The U.K. company claimed it invented hyperlinking, the tool
that lets Web users move between online pages and pictures.

U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon, in White Plains, New
York, ruled that Prodigy didn't infringe the BT patent. The
judge also said the Internet itself does not infringe the
patent.

``No jury could find that Prodigy infringes'' the BT patent
``either as part of the Internet or on its Web server viewed
separate and apart from the Internet,'' the judge said in a
27- page opinion released after the close of regular U.S.
trading.

-----------------
R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah@ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation
<http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and
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