Intersting fact about hyperlinks

[chrisjk]

Did you know that hyperlinks are patented? They were developed by a British Telecom technician as a way to link documents together, so everytime you use one, you are infringing on their patent.

Think how much money they could have made in royalties!!

[kedaman]

i thought hypertext/links concept was stolen from project Xanadu

[chrisjk]

Well BT own the patent. Whether they stole it or not I don't know.

[kedaman]

me either, better to say you don't know than to know but not say.

[parksie]

So did you miss the ruckus many months ago, then? They've given up trying to enforce this, since their patent idea is virtually nothing like the links on web pages. They tried suing a number of ISPs, without success.

[chrisjk]

I knew they were thinking of getting royalties from ISP's but that is the last I heard of it. It's probably the actual idea of hyperlinks they patented as well as the technology. To try and get some return now though is madness because there is this "sqatters-esque" rule that if someone has/uses something long enough, hard cheese.

[chenko]

Originally posted by parksie
So did you miss the ruckus many months ago, then? They've given up trying to enforce this, since their patent idea is virtually nothing like the links on web pages. They tried suing a number of ISPs, without success.

Typical BT, always wanting more money :rolleyes:

[parksie]

I didn't know it was possible to patent an idea :confused:

[chrisjk]

Originally posted by chenko
Typical BT, always wanting more money :rolleyes: Probably something to do with their £30 billion debt thanks to 3G licence bidding and the prospect of losing their Class A credit rating. Not so long ago BT could have taken over the world - now they're just screwed.

[chrisjk]

Originally posted by parksie
I didn't know it was possible to patent an idea :confused: Yeah, I did this whole thing on it in A Level Business. About these geezers who wanted to market an idea they had, only to find someone had already patented that idea, so they had to pay him royalites (case study kind of thing)

[Pix]

Originally posted by chrisjk
. Not so long ago BT could have taken over the world - now they're just screwed.

What a shame :rolleyes: B****** Telecom are too greedy for my liking

[chrisjk]

True, but they do have a f**k-off big debt. I mean, £30billion is insane, the GDP of some countries!!

[parksie]

And considering our government has similar amounts from about 6 companies... :rolleyes:

[chrisjk]

I reckon it was all a bit stupid as they spent all that money getting 3G licences, now they don't have enough to develop the handsets!! I mean, commercial suicide or what?!?

[chenko]

Originally posted by chrisjk
I reckon it was all a bit stupid as they spent all that money getting 3G licences, now they don't have enough to develop the handsets!! I mean, commercial suicide or what?!?

3G???

[HarryW]

I think they're licenses for using particular radio frequencies for mobile communications. The 3G stands for '3rd Generation' I think, meaning it's 3rd generation mobile communication technology. Err... I expect someone here knows better than me :)

[chrisjk]

I expect someone here knows better than menope harry, that's spot on.

[SurfDemon]

Wow! I've been out of touch. What happened for BT to go £30b in debt?

(Can't say I'm sorry though, they were a bunch of money grabbing b*stards when I lived there).

SD

[chrisjk]

acquisitions, loss-making projects, bidding for 3G licences mainly though.