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To: MulhollandDrive who wrote (45278)	6/20/2000 4:12:00 PM
From: DMaA	Respond to of 93625

OT - Patient rights... BT claims it owns patient to hyperlink technology. Will charge license fees: June 20, 2000 British Telecom Seeks License Fees From a U.S. Patent for Hyperlinks A WSJ.com News Roundup LONDON -- British Telecommunications PLC plans to seek licensing fees under a longstanding U.S. patent covering hyperlink technology -- the widely used tool for linking Web sites on the Internet. BT first realized in 1997 that the patent, which expires in 2006, might have commercial value, and the United Kingdom telecommunications group has been preparing to exploit it for the past three years, a company spokesman said. U.S. Internet-service providers will be BT's first targets for the licensing fees, but it may also look to other U.S. companies as well, the spokesman said. BT said it doesn't own similar patents in Europe or elsewhere. It filed the U.S. patent in 1976. BT would not give any indication of how much it might charge for a license, but it said it will not attempt to apply it retroactively. "We are not being specific about the financial proceeds -- it will depend on the U.S. ISPs' reaction. But we are looking for a reasonable royalty," the spokesman said. BT is focusing on ISPs because it believes it would be impractical to extend the action to every U.S. Web site using hyperlinks. But the spokesman added that BT may also look to charge a license fee to U.S. companies that use hyperlink technology in their corporate intranets. QED, a U.K. company that specializes in the exploitation of intellectual-property rights, will help BT enforce the patent. QED is owned by Scipher PLC, a U.K. technology group. Nigel Hawkins, an analyst at Williams de Broe, said the patent question is likely to be overshadowed by more important matters for investors, such as BT's involvement in the third-generation mobile licenses auctions in Germany. "This is a desperately complex legal issue," he said. "It's difficult to see an immediate impact on the share price in the short term." Vincent Scheurer, an intellectual-property attorney at Osborne Clarke in London, said he doubted BT would be able to enforce the claim. "I'm slightly surprised they are asserting this," he said. He predicted that most Internet-service providers would likely contest BT's claim on hyperlinks, which are universally available and have been since the inception of the Web. To collect the fees, Mr. Scheurer said, BT would be forced to take ISPs to court. "There would be a huge outcry if people had to start paying for it," Mr. Scheurer said. "There are so many hyperlinks out there it doesn't matter how much they'd charge -- the expense would be enormous." --WSJ.com staff reporter David Pringle contributed to this article. interactive.wsj.com 1976? What in the world were they doing in 1976 that could remotely be connected to hyperlinking?