Prior Art in BT Hyperlinking Case

Wired News reports on a case that might provide prior art to contest British Telecom's claim of a patent on hyperlinking.

Nobody should be more outraged over British Telecom's claim that it owns the patent to hyperlinking than Bob Bemer, who believes he may be the world's oldest, living computer programmer. Bemer, 82, isn't just taking a political stance against the recent legal filing by British Telecom that claims the company owns a patent on hyperlink technology. In 1960, Bemer -- whose coding contributions form the foundation of many modern computer systems -- came up with a critical coding concept that is now used in hyperlinks. So, he figures his claim is at least as good as British Telecom's, and some legal and computer experts agree with him.

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