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[FYI] Patente: Hyperlinks in den USA lizenzpflichtig?



http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/2000/24/ns-16116.html

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BT faces more shame in hyperlink row, say experts  

Tue, 20 Jun 2000 11:50:06 GMT Richard Barry  

More PR shame, litigation and a hell of a fight from US ISPs 
predicted as British Telecom tries to establish patent on hyperlinks  

British Telecom believes it owns a 14 year US patent for the World 
Wide Web's hyperlink technology and has hired an intellectual 
property specialist to ensure it can commercialise the patent, in 
court if necessary.  

Buried amongst 15,000 global patents, BT claims it discovered its 
lapse during a routine update of its intellectual property. 
Hyperlinks are used to connect to other words, pages or pictures on 
the Internet and are central to its operation.  

If the find is upheld, BT could be given the go ahead to pursue money 
from American ISPs -- a tactic it has already initiated.  

"It is regrettable that we weren't involved in the Net from the 
ground up," explains a spokesman. "What we are looking to do is 
charge US ISPs for using our intellectual property, that is fair."  

But British Telecom's vision of what is fair is bound to meet with 
fierce resistance across the pond, where Internet legislation is 
increasingly frequent. "There is no doubt this will lead to a massive 
battle in America," says Robin Bynoe, Net expert with London law firm 
Charles Russell.  

Bynoe is not convinced that, even if BT does own the patent, that it 
can sue for infringement. "Just because there is a patent doesn't 
mean it is for what they [BT] say it's for. You can bet that if BT 
does go for this in the courts, they will meet major litigation. They 
need to think about that."  

And BT cannot afford more PR shame: recently the company published 
the names and personal details of customers who had signed up for its 
ADSL offering. Many of those customers are seeking recourse through 
Oftel and trading standards bodies. Its rollout of unmetered access 
in the UK has been overshadowed by rows and campaigns accusing the 
telco of greed and acting in the interests of its shareholders rather 
than the general public.  

"Yet again," says an ISP who requested anonymity, "we see the ugly 
head of BT's greedy self emerge to frown at users who are not lining 
its pockets. This really is going too far and I expect them to suffer 
badly at the hands of the press and the users of the Net both here 
and in America."  

Scipher, the specialist helping BT with the patent application, did 
not return calls at press time.  

More details on this story throughout the week. 

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Dazu die alles entscheidenden Patentansprueche aus US-A-4,873,662:

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1. A digital information storage, retrieval and display system 
comprising:  

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;  

plural remote terminal means, each including (a) modem means for 
effecting input/output digital data communication with said central 
computer means via the telephone lines of a telephone network, (b) 
local memory for locally storing digital data representing at least 
the first portion of the selected block of information received via 
said modem means from the central computer, (c) display means for 
visually displaying such a locally stored first portion of a block of 
information and (d) key pad means connected to communicate data to at 
least said modem means for manual entry of keyed digital data; and  

further memory means being provided as a part of said central 
computer means for receiving and storing said second portion of the 
block of information selected by a particular terminal means in 
response to the selection of the block and when its respective first 
portion is transmitted to that terminal means for display, said 
central computer means utilizing keyed digital data from that 
particular terminal means of less extent than any one of said 
complete addresses for another block of information but nevertheless 
uniquely indicative of one of the complete addresses contained in 
said portion of the block of information which contains the first 
portion then being displayed by that particular terminal means for 
selectively accessing the part of said further memory means 
associated with that particular terminal means and for supplying the 
complete address of the next block of information which is to be 
retrieved for that particular terminal means and utilized for display 
purposes at that terminal means.  

[...]  

3. A digital information storage, retrieval and display system 
comprising:  

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;  

plural remote terminal means, each including (a) modem means for 
effecting input/output digital data communication with said central 
computer means via the telephone lines of a telephone network, (b) 
local memory means for locally storing digital data representing at 
least the first portion of the selected block of information received 
via said modem means from the central computer and for processing 
digital data, (c) display means for visually displaying such a 
locally stored first portion of a block of information and (d) keypad 
means connected to communicate data to at least said local memory 
means for manual entry of keyed digital data; and  

further memory means being provided as a part of said local memory 
means at each of said remote terminal means for receiving and storing 
said second portion of the selected block of information in response 
to the selection of the block and when its respective first portion 
is transmitted thereto, said local memory means utilizing keyed 
digital data of less extent than any one of said complete addresses 
for another block of information but nevertheless uniquely indicative 
of one of the complete addresses contained in said second portion of 
the block of information which contains the first portion then being 
displayed for selectively accessing said further memory means and for 
supplying data to be transmitted by said modem means and indicative 
of the complete address of the next block of information which is to 
be retrieved and utilized for display purposes.  

[...]  

5. A terminal apparatus for use in a digital information storage, 
retrieval and display system having a central computer and a 
plurality of remote terminal apparatuses providing access via 
telephone lines to information stored in the central computer as 
plural blocks of information, each said block of information being 
stored at a respectively corresponding location designated by a 
predetermined unique address by means of which single address that 
complete block of information can be selected, each of said blocks 
comprising a first portion containing information for display at a 
remote terminal apparatus and a second portion containing information 
not for display but including the complete address for each of plural 
other stored blocks of information, said terminal apparatus 
comprising:  

(a) modem means for effecting input/output digital data 
communications with said central computer via the telephone lines of 
a telephone network,  

(b) local memory means linked to said modem means for locally storing 
digital data representing at least the first portion of the selected 
block of information received via said modem means from the central 
computer,  

(c) display means coupled to said local memory means for visually 
displaying such a locally stored first portion of a block of 
information,  

(d) keypad means coupled to at least one of said modem means and said 
local memory means for manual entry of keyed digital data,  

(e) further memory means for receiving and storing said second 
portion of a selected block of information when its respective first 
portion is transmitted for display to the terminal means, and  

(f) means coupled to said further memory means and to said keypad 
means for addressing such second portion stored in said further 
memory means using keypad digital data of less extent than any one of 
said complete addresses for another block of information to address a 
portion of the further memory means and cause a read-out portion of 
the further memory means to supply the complete address of the next 
block of information which is to be retrieved and utilized for 
display purposes, the thus obtained complete address being 
transmissible via the modem means to said central computer.  

[...]  

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Man muesste vor allem auch ueber die Bedeutung von "central" in 
"central computer" nachdenken und ueberlegen, ob das mit dem WWW 
ueberhaupt was zu tun hat.