Amazing.. > >From Silicon.com (free sub required) > > >Tuesday 21st January 2003 11:30am >If you've got a website, you could owe this company millions... >Echoes of the BT hyperlink case > >Every website that uses a common form of site navigation could be hit for >thousands or even millions of dollars in licence fees, if a US company= which >claims to hold a patent on the idea gets its way. > >SBC Communications, a major American telco and ISP, says that it owns the >right to links that stay visible on the page during navigation - and wants >up to five per cent of company revenue annually as a licence fee. > >In an email sent to the site www.museumtour.com, SBC said: "Your site >includes several selectors or tabs that... seem to reside in their own= frame >or part of the user interface. [These] appear to infringe several issued >claims in our patent." > >The company also included a schedule of fees, which show that the 'base >rate' for licensing for a company with a $100,000 (=A362,000) turnover is >$5,270 (=A33,300) a year, rising to $16m for a $10bn company. > >Web application developer DJ Walker-Morgan said: "What they are patenting= is >the entire process of structuring documents for the web, something that has >been done since the advent of the web in the early nineties. They must know >that they have a vague and challengeable patent; what other reason would >they go after small companies like museumtours, and not after Amazon, AOL= or >Microsoft?" > ><more> > > > >http://www.silicon.com/bin/bladerunner?30REQEVENT=3D&REQAUTH=3D21046&14001R= EQSUB >=3DREQINT1=3D57135
--- Dustin Puryear <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Puryear Information Technology Windows, UNIX, and IT Consulting http://www.puryear-it.com
