Comment Articles

Patently ridiculous

Tony Westbrook AnchorDesk

Published: 21 Jun 2000 11:17 BST

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 -- whats 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 Rupert Goodwins fulsomely explains 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.