This seems so silly its almost laughable. Since Apples HyperCard
probably predates all this, how they ever got a patent is
anyones guess.
I'm assuming this is a UK patent in anycase.
Anyone have a URL to the actual patent? Well I guess you
are not allowed to post that without infringing on the patent!!!
DW.
=============================================
BT's sudden announcement this week that it will enforce its patent on
hypertext links has caused shock waves in the industry.
Experts are divided as to the rights of the claim, with some arguing it
will hamper the acceptance of ecommerce and others claiming BT has a right
to collect revenue from its technology.
According to Phil Freegard, director of ecommerce at Pagoda Consulting, BT
will find it difficult to enforce the patent. "There are prior cases," he
said.
"Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web and that was built on work by
Ted Nelson. Doug Engelbart also did some work on augmentation in the 1960s.
So maybe there's some doubt as to whether BT really invented this, even
though they have the patent."
Chris Setz, director of the Network Professional Association, said the
original patent doesn't give BT the right to try to charge for it now.
"Their technology came out of the fact they operate in a business
technology environment.
"Just because they thought of the idea first, just because they patented
it, isn't enough because they didn't control the patent." Setz added that
the move to enforce the patent could also damage BT's business reputation.
But according Duncan Chapple, analyst at Ovum, the move is not
unsurprising. "The whole reason why people patent something is so it gets
into the public domain and you can leverage money from it," he said.
But the real damage, according to Freegard, was caused by the delay between
patenting the technology and trying to enforce it. "Why has this taken them
so long to get together?" Freegard said.
"It's an example that BT is not managing its intellectual property."
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