It is the first lawsuit filed by BT to protect its highly controversial patent, although it had written to numerous other ISPs earlier in the year requesting licence payments for their use of links. To date, most critics have dismissed BT’s claims as laughable.
BT announced in June that it has since 1989 owned a US patent that covers the “hidden page,” having filed its patent application in 1976. The company says its patent covers hyperlinks, which are obviously fundamental to internet navigation. The patent expires in October 2006.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages from Prodigy which was the first commercial ISP in the US, has an estimated 2.4 million customers and claims to be the largest consumer digital subscriber in the US.
If BT wins its case, it could open the flood gates to demands by BT for revenue from, potentially, just about any US business with a web site. BT hired the UK-based technology development and licensing company Scipher last year to broker licensing agreements with the US ISPs. The company said it would not pursue patent claims with individual users as “it would not be practical.”
The text of the patent can be found here.
See also:
BT enforces its claim over hyperlink patent, OUT-LAW News, 18/12/2000
Controversy over hyperlinking, OUT-LAW News, 21/06/2000
BT reveals its hyperlink patent, OUT-LAW News, 20/06/2000