Jan 22 2003

Ridiculousness Abounds

Published by beth under Uncategorized

So, this wasn’t what I had intended to write about today, but the absurdity of the situation necessitates more publicity (even what little publicity this site gives it).

I thought I’d seen the height of ridiculousness when last year I read about British Telecommunications’ patent suit against Prodigy. From an older news article (infoworld, 2000):

Early in the year, after discovering in a routine check that it owned the patent for the hyperlink, BT wrote to 17 U.S. ISPs, including Prodigy, asking them to pay for the privilege of using the technology through licensing agreements.

The suit was dismissed, as it should have been. Interesting to note is this comment by “Prodigy and SBC spokesperson Larry Meyer”:

“We are pleased with the judge’s decision. She has validated our position that these claims are without merit…. We trust that this will put to rest these frivolous claims.”

What makes this comment particularly interesting is the latest patent infringement claim: SBC Communications is claiming patent rights on icon-based navigation. They are trying to convince MuseumTour.com to acquire a license to the SBC patent
. From the letter SBC sent to museumtour.com:

We recently observed several useful navigation features within the user interface or your site www.museumtour.com. For example your site includes several selectors or tabs that correspond to specific locations within your site documents. These selectors seem to reside in their own frame or part of the user interface. And, as such, the selectors are not lost when a different part of the document is displayed to the user — see screen shots from museumtour.com enclosed. By sperating the selectors from the content, Museumetour has truly simplified site navigation and improved the shopping experience for its users.

As you review the Structured Document Patent you will notice that the above-discussed features appear to infringe several issued claims in our patent. In light of Museum Tours presumed respect for the intellectual property rights of others, we are pleased to offer you a Preferred Rate license under the structured Document Patent — see enclosed rate schedule.

Odd that SBC (parent company of Prodigy) apparently feels that this current issue isn’t frivolous.
As PlaybackTime mentions:

But now so desperate for any income whatsoever, they’re becoming as dangerous as a wild animal backed into a corner — now they’re shaking down small businesses, which generally can’t afford to fight a bloated telecommunications company.

Bah. Silly silly sots. Ludicrous patent, ludicrous claims.

One Response to “Ridiculousness Abounds”

  1. # Anonymouson 26 Jan 2003 at 1:29 pm

    how about “ridiculosity”?

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