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

[Scott W. Sharpe]

I apologize for the misunderstanding.  The appropriate pronoun in my
previous post is "they" instead of "he."

>
> 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.