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Patente: Hyperlinks in den USA lizenzpflichtig?

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


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.


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


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.

[...]


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.

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