The company is suing Prodigy which was the first commercial ISP
in the US. Yesterday’s preliminary hearing marks the start of a
test case for BT. If successful, its range of potential targets in
the US will be virtually limitless. The so-called “Hidden Page”
patent is only valid in the US and it expires in October 2006. BT
is arguing that every use of a hyperlink on every US web site is
infringing its patent and accordingly it should be entitled to a
licensing fee.
The long description of the patent refers to, in part:
”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;”
US District Judge Colleen McMahon of the Southern District of
New York (where Prodigy was originally based) said of the patent
that it was “like reading Old English,” adding that to compare a
1976 computer and a 2002 computer is like comparing a mastodon with
a jet.
The text of BT’s patent which, though filed in 1976 was only
granted in 1989.
