NY judge places restrictions on BT in hyperlink case

A judge in the Federal Court for the Southern District of New York has ruled that BT must restrict what it says to prove its claim that it invented hyperlinking three decades ago--before the advent of the commercial Internet--according to Reuters.

Judge Colleen McMahon reportedly questioned the validity of BT’s claim that patents it received in the 1970s should be applied to today’s Internet. At the heart of the carrier’s claims is the assertion that today’s URLs (universal resource locators) are the progeny of the “complete address” described in the BT patent.

Defendants in the case, which Reuters said includes SBC Communications subsidiary Prodigy, reportedly were buoyed by the interim ruling and were considering asking for a dismissal.

A great deal hinges on the outcome of the case. Should it prevail, BT could force Internet service providers worldwide to pay royalty fees for using the URL technology. However, legal experts interviewed by Reuters indicated BT’s case could be weakened because the carrier refrained from asserting its rights for 13 years after the patent was granted in 1989. This would likely prevent BT from collecting back royalties, which would be a blow as the patent is scheduled to expire in 2006, according to Reuters.

--Glenn Bischoff, senior news writer