BT has filed a lawsuit in New York against US ISP Prodigy
Communications alleging infringement of a BT patent which the
company says covers hyperlinking. It is the first lawsuit filed by
BT to protect its patent, although it has written to numerous ISPs
requesting licence payments for the use of the technology.
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 allow
people to navigate between pages on the internet. The patent
expires in October 2006.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages from Prodigy which was the
first commercial ISP in the US and has an estimated 2.4 million
customers. If BT wins the case, it will likely open the flood gates
to claims by BT for revenue from the countless US companies that
rely on hyperlinking.
