BT Hyperlink Patent Lawsuit Starting
from the throw-it-out dept
We may be violating a patent just by creating this post and hyperlinking to a story about BT's patent on hyperlinking. We had originally mentioned this story a few years ago when BT first claimed they had the patent for hyperlinking, but the case is finally going to trial. They're taking Prodigy, the ISP, to court for violating the patent. Of course, the defense has been organizing all sorts of prior art examples, such as Ted Nelson's work and a 1968 video featuring Douglas Engelbart demonstrating a system that uses links. BT is still confident that they'll win - and then we'll all be in trouble.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
This will finally go away, right?
I'm not a lawyer, but I really thought they wouldn't have enough evidence to even get this far. And this quote from the article actually has me a little worried:
"Cella, for one, questioned whether the Engelbart film would hold up in court, adding that the heavily indebted BT would be unlikely to head to court and incur millions of dollars in legal fees if it thought the film could harm its case."
Our current patent system is not working.
steve
[ link to this | view in thread ]