[ Thanks to Greta
Durr/LinuxMall.com for this link. ]
“Under the terms of a lawsuit reportedly filed by British
Telecommunications (BT), you have just read a patent
infringement–otherwise known as a hyperlink.”
“According to U.S. patent number 4,873,662 (Oops. That’s another
one, isn’t it?), called “Information handling system and terminal
apparatus therefor,” filed August 15, 1980 and granted nine years
later, the hyperlink may be the intellectual property of BT.”
“As the sole owners of this bit of technology, the company has
decided to sue all Internet service providers (ISPs) in the U.S.
for patent infringement. According to an article in The Register
(This is shameless!), the patent was submitted “following work on
text-based online information systems [called] Viewdata and Prestel
by the General Post Office (GPO) before it was split into the Post
Office and BT.”