The story in the UK press is that it's a U.S. patent. Patents in other
countries expired a few years ago. Granting of the U.S. patent was delayed
(by 11 years, IIRC) by a dispute.
Kind regards,
Alan Macro
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Tel: +44 (0)20 8780 6882 Fax: +44 (0)20 8780 6801
Hill Price Davison - http://www.hpd.co.uk
> -----Original Message-----
> From: David RR Webber [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: 03 July 2000 18:44
> To: XML/edi Group
> Subject: Hyperlink BT patent
>
> 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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