The BT group has decided to drop its legal battle to enforce a
US patent that it considers to cover internet hyperlinks, according
to FT.com. The telco has said that it will not appeal a recent
ruling by a US federal court judge, who threw out the case without
a trial.
The case was brought against Prodigy Communications, the first
commercial ISP in the US. BT alleged that Prodigy infringed its
so-called Sargent patent which covers a method that allows data
stored on a central computer to be accessed by multiple users,
located in remote terminals, via a telecommunications network.
The original application for the Sargent patent was filed in
1976. Many successor applications were submitted until the Sargent
patent was granted in the US in 1989.
On 22nd August, the US District Court for the Southern District
of New York rejected the complaint without a trial. If successful,
the case could have opened the door to enormous licensing revenues
for BT.
