[WEB4LIB] Re: Now I've heard *everything*

[Walt_Crawford at notes.rlg.org]

It may be useful to clarify the claimed patent situation, particularly
given:

"It is interesting that he waits until now to attempt
to cash in on his patent, after everyone is tied into the hyperlink system.
IF he is able to enforce this patent, ISP's will have little choice.  Ah,
the IT world!"

There's no "he" claiming to hold this patent; it's British Telecom, a huge
telecommunications firm.

The "he" quoted in the article, Tim Berners-Lee, is *not* claiming such a
patent. He commented on the claim, given his role as head of the World Wide
Web Consortium and his claim to fame as inventor of the Web.

In fact, Berners-Lee's comment that he built on the work of Ted Nelson may
offer the best chance to undermine the patent: Nelson's book (calling it a
"book" dignifies it a bit too much, but...) seems likely to constitute
prior art.

In any case: if you want to get mad at somebody, get mad at British
Telecom.

Tim Berners-Lee is not claiming any patent rights here, and made no attempt
to patent URLs or HTTP when he invented them at CERN.