xml-dev - Re: British Telecom owns Hyperlink?

[Francis Norton <francis@redrice.com>]

Steve Poirot wrote:
> 
> >From the Financial Times:
> 
...

I am certainlynot a lawyer, but I had a look at the patent
(
http://164.195.100.11/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=/netahtml/srchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1='4873662'.WKU.&OS=PN/4873662&RS=PN/4873662
)
and I think it is dead, dead, dead. 

Search the page for the word "numbers", carefully parse the wonderfully
convoluted sentence in which it occurs, and you will see that the patent
is on the idea of a simplified interface whereby users type "numbers"
into a (numeric) "keypad". 

That's the "simplification" of the user terminal that they're patenting.
Not hyperlinking as a concept - that's been around from way before then,
so they can only go for a very specific patent, and this isn't it.

In fact, here goes:

"Initially the data is displayed on the screen in the form of a sequence
of progressively more detailed indices by means of which an operator is
enabled to key-in to a key pad provided for the terminal numbers
identifying a particular page of information which he requires."

--> snipped and rearranged for clarity -->

"... a sequence of ... indices by means of which an operator is enabled
to key-in to a key pad ... numbers identifying a particular page of
information ..."

There's a whole lot more ther, but this seems convincing to me.

Francis.
-- 
Francis Norton.

Defy convention? Deify convention!

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