British Telecom, Hyperlinking And Mr. Englebart

tewl writes: "Saw this [article] on [New Scientist] -- 'BT's hopes of enforcing its U.S. patent on Internet hyperlinking (New Scientist, 1 July, p 17) may be dashed by an old movie clip. The U.S.-based Internet Patent News Service is pointing patent lawyers to a website which says it hosts film of a prior demonstration of hyperlinking prior demonstration of hyperlinking. BT is basing its claim on a 1976 patent (4873662) that through a legal quirk remains in force until 2006. The 90-minute film was shot by Stanford University in 1968 when Douglas Englebart showed 1000 people the first mouse -- using it to click on hyperlinks.'" What's not open-and-shut here?

Comments

*Whap* Stupid Company!

[Electric Angst]

Don't you wish you had a stick you could hit corporations with...

*Whap!* Bad British Telecom! No Patent!
*Whap!* Bad Amazon! No One-Click!

The person who invents the corporate-whapping mechanism will become my one true personal hero...
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