The company is suing Prodigy which was the first commercial ISP in the US. Yesterday’s preliminary hearing marks the start of a test case for BT. If successful, its range of potential targets in the US will be virtually limitless. The so-called “Hidden Page” patent is only valid in the US and it expires in October 2006. BT is arguing that every use of a hyperlink on every US web site is infringing its patent and accordingly it should be entitled to a licensing fee.
The long description of the patent refers to, in part:
”a central computer means in which plural blocks of information are stored at respectively corresponding locations, each of which locations is designated by a predetermined address therein by means of which a block can be selected, each of said blocks comprising a first portion containing information for display and a second portion containing information not for display but including the complete address for each of plural other blocks of information;”
US District Judge Colleen McMahon of the Southern District of New York (where Prodigy was originally based) said of the patent that it was “like reading Old English,” adding that to compare a 1976 computer and a 2002 computer is like comparing a mastodon with a jet.
The text of BT’s patent which, though filed in 1976 was only granted in 1989.