[thelist] Patent Madness (BT "owns" hyperlinks)

Apparently, a UK Internet co. is claiming a patent on hyperlinks. They're
planning on liscencing the technology to Internet co.s in the US, where the
patent, filed in the mid-1970s, has not yet run out.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_798000/798475.stm

"UK firm BT is claiming ownership of a key part of the internet.

The telecommunications giant says it came up with idea for hyperlinks that turn
separate pages of information into an interconnected whole.

Clicking on a hyperlink whisks you from one webpage to another.

BT says a patent filed in the US in 1976 and granted in 1989 gives it ownership
of hyperlink technology

Now, it is asking US internet service providers to pay to use what it considers
to be its intellectual property..."