What's with BT's hyperlink patent?
As you sift through the vast numbers of guarantees, receipts, contracts and Air Miles statements, you see something in the corner of your eye that attracts your attention. It seems to be some kind of official patent document, circa 1980. And hang on -- what's this? It seems to contain a complex description of some kind of disc attached to a hub, to be used in various transport applications. Ah now you remember. It is a patent for the wheel you filed for a few years back.
Well fancy. As you sit amongst the old bills and licences, you start to imagine what this might mean to you. You'll never have to work again. You can license every wheel currently being used on a vehicle and get fabulously rich on the proceeds. And don't you deserve it? After all this is your intellectual property.
Well, OK, perhaps a few people had come up with the wheel concept before your patent was lodged. But they weren't sharp enough to get it all down in a patent, so to all intents and purposes yours is the first definitive description. And thats what counts surely. OK, you'll admit that there were a few diagrams and descriptions circulating in esoteric circles pre-dating your submission, but the fact remains that you got to the patent office first, fought your way through a mountain of bureaucracy and got the documents to prove it. That has to count for quite a bit doesn't it?
Absurd as this story sounds, its not far from the story of BT and the hyperlink patent it has 'discovered' in a box along with 1500 other ones it has applied for through the years. Who knows what else they've got in there and forgotten about: the cure for cancer, powered flight, Pokemon, the telephone? Watch this space...
As reported on ZDNet News, BT's chances of success seem, at best, slim. Unfortunately for BT there is plenty of evidence of hyperlinks not only be being described, but also both demonstrated and even named prior to the date of their patent, so the idea that they will successfully claim the idea as their intellectual property seems remote. The word 'daft' more readily comes to mind. And the battle with US ISPs predicted by some observers is unlikely to happen for this reason. Any sensible Patent lawyer will make sure of that.
But lets forget all that. Instead lets suppose BT is legally right, chooses to pursue this claim and will succeed and win the right to patent hyperlinks. Why would they want to do it anyway? Here is a company whose core competency is telecommunications, interoperability and communications. BT is an infrastructure provider, whose continued success is predicated on the continued growth of the internet.
Hyperlinks are a key part of the reason why the web has grown exponentially. Hypertext links, for example, make it possible to bounce readers directly to a comment or glossary of terms. And readers who don't need the info don't need to click on it. It makes the web experience appropriate and rewarding for every user, whatever their level of knowledge. That is why we all like it. When you've read this piece you may choose to find out more about this story by clicking on one of the 'Read more' links at the top right hand side of the screen.
So all BT interests lie in the basic concepts of the web remaining part of an open and free standard. Anyway, how would anyone put a royalty; on hyperlinks? Would it be per thousand links? Would links to commercial sites have similar royalties to those to non-profit making organisations? Would educational and charities be treated in different ways?. How much would we be charged? Where would the money come from? Users, publishers whose sites use hyperlinks, ISPs who deliver these links to users (they seem to be BT's favoured target), or the infrastucture providers (like BT ) who are also deliverers of that information?
Clearly this is 100 percent, copper bottomed nonsense. An idea so absurd I find it hard to satirise further. Yet I've checked my calendar and it is not April the first. Nonetheless this is certainly a perfect story for the early summer silly season. Maybe that's why BT has done it. It certainly couldn't be for any sane commercial or PR reason could it?
Sounds like a case for TV's kooky counsel Ally McBeal to me. Let me know what you think in the TalkBack below.