Re: [Patents] trivial use of frames is patented

[Bernard Lang <Bernard.Lang@inria.fr>]

On Mon, Jan 20, 2003 at 11:00:23PM -0000, Nick Fleming wrote:
> 
> > SBC Communications claims they own Patent on Internal links and Includes,
> > threatens to sue the little guys first, then move to the big guys.
> >
> > We received a 40 page package from SBC Intellectual Property today
> > informing us that our web site - which has links on the left side that go
> > to other web pages within the site - but does not lose the left side
> > navigation links - was in violation of their  ?Structured Document
> Browser?
> > Patent.
> >
> >
> > see http://www.museumtour.com/sbclawsuit.html
> >
> 
> Is this for real ?

the people on the letter and the SBC company seems real enough.
Easily found with Google  (or the Hoax is quite elaborated).

You can write to the lawyer to check with him whether he meant it as a
joke

 They seem to be claiming a patent for the frames
> tag in html.. which first appeared in netscape navigator 2.0 .. (if
> memory serves me correctly.. about 1995-1996 ??) and must
> surely have been in a public standards document long before this
> date. and so pre-dates the 1996 filing date ?
> 
> The rest, to me, just looks like typical legalese rubbish designed
> to scare people into coughing up money.
> 
> ..btw..the next time the US extends the copyright period by
> another 20 years I'll just wonder if anyone else notices the
> irony that the country that fought so hard to free the slaves
>  has enslaved most of its population without them blinking.
> 
> Sorry. its late, forgive my ramblings.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Nick.
> 

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