A Patent Desaster: British Telecom sues the whole

by Erich 4 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Erich

  British Telecom sue the whole world
  
  British Telecom (BT) now obviously goes ahead with their patent on "Hyperlinks" they are claiming for themselves. Next Monday begins the hearing of 16 US-internet-providers (mainly Podigry) before the district court in White Plains (N.Y.). If BT wins the law suit, they possibly go to sue the whole world on patent infringements and compensations...

  You may ask: Who is the true inventor of the "Hypertext" : British Telecom... or ??

  Here you have a classic case of total defection of the international patent policy:

  British Telecom had a small employee (better said a "think-slave"), named Mr. D. Sargant. He invented HYPERTEXT during the 70ies. (Meanwhile he got retired). He went with his super-idea to his boss, the boss applied his invention for a patent, and the inventor did receive a fee of 1 Pound Sterling (the officially legally-permitted minimum-fee for inventions!). Years later, the patent got issued by some patent-offices. His bosses received the patent documents - but they forgot it in a drawer. Of course, they also forgot to ask the inventor, Mr. Sargant: what could we do with your invention? Where could we implement it? (They themselves were not enough competent to have an idea what to do with HYPERTEXT.. but to ask him: oh no, that would be very condescending...)

  Now, the time went on, technology advanced too, and 10 years later in the brains of his bosses it began to dawn that this invention already got used in HTML-language for Internet. NOW they became very active and busy.. Like an elephant in a porcelain-store, they began to run to their lawyers. It was no miracle then, that after the first contact in the year 2000 many Internet-stocks came into troubles. This happened in May 2000 and was one of the triggers for the general decline of the NewEconomy stock market...
  
  BUT DANGER !!! WITHOUT HYPERTEXT NO HTML-LANGUAGE, AND WITHOUT HTML NO MORE INTERNET… !
• 

  VM44

  I would be interested in seeing what the claims are in
  the British patent.

  The concept of hypertext goes back to the time of the
  Second World War, when Vannever Bush wrote down some
  ideas about something called MEMEX.

  Here is an article, "Hypertext and Hypermedia:
  Precursors of the Web" by by David M. Bucknell
  which I found interesting.

  [ http://www.iteachnet.com/historyofhyper.html]

  --VM44
• 

  Erich

  VM44:
  

  I would be interested in seeing what the claims are in
  the British patent.

  
  United States Patent 4,873,662
  Sargent October 10, 1989

  Information handling system and terminal apparatus therefor

  Inventors: Sargent; Desmond J. (Felixstowe, GB2)
  Assignee: The Post Office (GB)
  Appl. No.: 178307
  Filed: August 15, 1980

  What is claimed is:

  1. A digital information storage, retrieval and display system comprising:

  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;

  plural remote terminal means, each including (a) modem means for effecting input/output digital data communication with said central computer means via the telephone lines of a telephone network, (b) local memory for locally storing digital data representing at least the first portion of the selected block of information received via said modem means from the central computer, (c) display means for visually displaying such a locally stored first portion of a block of information and (d) key pad means connected to communicate data to at least said modem means for manual entry of keyed digital data; and

  further memory means being provided as a part of said central computer means for receiving and storing said second portion of the block of information selected by a particular terminal means in response to the selection of the block and when its respective first portion is transmitted to that terminal means for display, said central computer means utilizing keyed digital data from that particular terminal means of less extent than any one of said complete addresses for another block of information but nevertheless uniquely indicative of one of the complete addresses contained in said portion of the block of information which contains the first portion then being displayed by that particular terminal means for selectively accessing the part of said further memory means associated with that particular terminal means and for supplying the complete address of the next block of information which is to be retrieved for that particular terminal means and utilized for display purposes at that terminal means.

  2. A system as in claim 1 wherein the second part of a block of information includes a representation of the monetary charge to be made in respect of supplying such information for display from the central computer means which also includes means for accumulating charges derived from the second parts of such supplied blocks and for associating the charges with the terminal apparatus to which the first parts of such blocks were transmitted.

  3. A digital information storage, retrieval and display system comprising:

  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;

  plural remote terminal means, each including (a) modem means for effecting input/output digital data communication with said central computer means via the telephone lines of a telephone network, (b) local memory means for locally storing digital data representing at least the first portion of the selected block of information received via said modem means from the central computer and for processing digital data, (c) display means for visually displaying such a locally stored first portion of a block of information and (d) keypad means connected to communicate data to at least said local memory means for manual entry of keyed digital data; and

  further memory means being provided as a part of said local memory means at each of said remote terminal means for receiving and storing said second portion of the selected block of information in response to the selection of the block and when its respective first portion is transmitted thereto, said local memory means utilizing keyed digital data of less extent than any one of said complete addresses for another block of information but nevertheless uniquely indicative of one of the complete addresses contained in said second portion of the block of information which contains the first portion then being displayed for selectively accessing said further memory means and for supplying data to be transmitted by said modem means and indicative of the complete address of the next block of information which is to be retrieved and utilized for display purposes.

  4. A system as in claim 3 wherein the second part of a block of information includes a representation of the monetary charge to be made in respect of supplying such information for display from the central computer means which also includes means for accumulating charges derived from the second parts of such supplied blocks and for associating the charges with the terminal apparatus to which the first parts of such blocks were transmitted.

  5. A terminal apparatus for use in a digital information storage, retrieval and display system having a central computer and a plurality of remote terminal apparatuses providing access via telephone lines to information stored in the central computer as plural blocks of information, each said block of information being stored at a respectively corresponding location designated by a predetermined unique address by means of which single address that complete block of information can be selected, each of said blocks comprising a first portion containing information for display at a remote terminal apparatus and a second portion containing information not for display but including the complete address for each of plural other stored blocks of information, said terminal apparatus comprising:

  (a) modem means for effecting input/output digital data communications with said central computer via the telephone lines of a telephone network,

  (b) local memory means linked to said modem means for locally storing digital data representing at least the first portion of the selected block of information received via said modem means from the central computer,

  (c) display means coupled to said local memory means for visually displaying such a locally stored first portion of a block of information,

  (d) keypad means coupled to at least one of said modem means and said local memory means for manual entry of keyed digital data,

  (e) further memory means for receiving and storing said second portion of a selected block of information when its respective first portion is transmitted for display to the terminal means, and

  (f) means coupled to said further memory means and to said keypad means for addressing such second portion stored in said further memory means using keypad digital data of less extent than any one of said complete addresses for another block of information to address a portion of the further memory means and cause a read-out portion of the further memory means to supply the complete address of the next block of information which is to be retrieved and utilized for display purposes, the thus obtained complete address being transmissible via the modem means to said central computer.

  6. A terminal apparatus as in claim 5 including means responsive to information stored in the further memory means for modifying signals derived from the keypad means to produce the signals to be transmitted by the modem to a telephone line.

  7. A terminal apparatus as in claim 5 including logic means responsive to data entered through the keypad means and the second portion then stored in the further memory means, the logic means having an output connected to the local memory means which logic and local memory means jointly cause the generation of a display dependent (a) on the data entered through the keypad means and (b) on the second portion then stored in the further memory means.

  kind regards
  erich
• 

  VM44

  Thanks Erich,

  This is a case that I am going to try to follow.

  --VM44
• 

  Simon

  The patent system is nuts. Someone is patenting 'the chip' here in the UK and if granted, they would be able to levy a charge off chip shops all over the UK. They are doing it to highlight a problem of food patenting, the most rediculous case being a US man who went to Mexico, bought some food seeds and grew them in his garden and then applied for a patent and since it was granted can charge a license on all imports of the food into the US!

  I personally think the whole world should stick a collective finger up at BT (they are in a bad way and are ovbiously desparate for some money).

  This all smacks of the Unisys GUF thing again and I think there should be some ruling that companies can't keep quiet about 'an invention' while everyone uses it for years and systems built around it and then come out and say "oh, BTW ... it's ours and you owe us money"