British Telecommunications has revealed that it owns a US patent
which covers hyperlinking – and has done so since 1986. Until now,
BT has not attempted to exploit its patent, but in the last few
weeks it has sent letters to a number of US ISPs, alerting them to
its legal rights in the technology.
The patent is believed to be the result of research in the 1970s
that led to the Prestel system which allowed users to send messages
and access screen-based information from third party servers. The
technology was not popular because it pre-dated the affordable
PC.
BT sought patents in countries other than the US, and these have
already expired. However, because the US patent office did not
formally accept BT’s application until 1986, its US patent still
has six years before expiry.
It appears that the patent was forgotten about until a routine
audit of intellectual property about two years ago. BT has sent
letters to ISPs in the US and has instructed QED, a company which
helps companies win revenues for patents that have not been
exploited.
In a statement yesterday, BT said, “We are not trying to stop
anybody using the internet, we simply want some reasonable
royalties based on the revenues other organisations are enjoying
from using this intellectual property.”
It is likely that BT will face much legal opposition in its
attempt to enforce a patent that strikes at such a fundamental
component of the internet. The company said it waited two years
since it rediscovered the patent to ensure that it was ready to
exploit it properly.
