 
  See your link here
|
For more info on a specific newsletter, click the title. Details will be displayed in a new window.
Subscribe to
Computerworld 40 years of the most authoritative source of news and information for IT leaders.
Patently outrageous? SBC claims patent on framelike browsing
or
Other Legislation/Regulation Stories
|
|
|
|
January 22, 2003 (IDG News Service) --
SBC Intellectual Property owns two U.S. patents on a Web site navigation tool called a "structured document browser" and it is asking MuseumTour.com and other sites to pony up licensing fees.
The structured document browser's definition sounds like the technique of using frames to link to other documents on a Web site, something used by hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of sites. SBC Intellectual Property President Harlie Frost said the patent claims are "related to frames." However, he referred other questions to SBC's public relations representatives.
"If you find something interesting in this, that'll be curious to me," Frost said of the patent claims.
Several Internet activists, including members of the free software movement, have for years blamed the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for granting patents on technologies that were already widely used. The most publicized case was in September 1999, when Amazon.com Inc. was granted a patent for its one-click shopping service. Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos later called for patent reform.
According to U.S. Patent No. 6,442,574, dated Aug. 27, 2002, a structured document browser "includes a constant user interface for displaying and viewing sections of a document that is organized according to a pre-defined structure." The documents are tagged with embedded codes, and the tags are "mapped to correspond to a set of icons. When the icon is selected while browsing a document, the browser will display the section of the structure corresponding to the icon selected, while preserving the constant user interface."
A similar patent, No. 5,933,841, was filed by Ameritech Corp. in May 1996, and was granted Aug. 3, 1999. SBC Intellectual Property, a division of telecommunications company SBC Communications Inc., now owns that earlier patent.
SBC Intellectual Property released a statement in response to questions about the patents, saying that actively protecting patents is a common practice among patent holders.
SBC Intellectual Property is working with several commercial Web site owners on the structured document browser patents, the statement continued. "SBC Intellectual Property is committed to working with these and other entities to establish patent licensing terms that are reasonable and fair for all parties."
An SBC representative said he couldn't comment further.
SBC's letter, part of which is posted at MuseumTour.com, outlines licensing fees for sites using SBC's patents. The fees range from $527 for an annual royalty for a company with revenue of $100,000 per year to $5 million for a fully prepaid license for a company with revenue of $10 billion per year.
MuseumTour.com, an educational products catalog site owned by Informal Education Products, received the licensing letter from SBC Intellectual Property last Thursday, according to Marilynne Eichinger, president of
Reprinted with permission from
IDG.netStory copyright 2008 International Data Group. All rights reserved.
|
Print this Story |
|
Send Us Feedback |
|
E-mail this Story |
|
Digg this Story |
|
Slashdot this Story |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
| All Zones Business Continuity Zone The File Data Management Zone Security Management Zone The SAS Zone Business Intelligence and Analytics Zone The Enterprise Search Zone Software as a Service Zone The Security Zone |
|
See your link here
|
 |
||||||||
| ||||||||
| ||||||||
| ||||||||
|
Get this briefing free (a $195 value), for a limited time, courtesy of VeriSign. 
Dynamic Data Center and Virtualization Drives Operational Excellence at Emory Healthcare
Download this white paper, free, compliments of Citrix!
Read up on the latest ideas and technologies from companies that sell hardware, software and services. 
- Windows users indifferent to Microsoft patch alarm, says researcher
- Microsoft slates 8 bug updates for year's final Patch Tuesday
- Tech jobs down sharply but not out
- More top stories
 Since You AskedA weekly storage column from storage analyst, Steve Duplessie of the Enterprise Strategy Group |
Eliminate SPAM, Gain Productivity Learn all about the dangers and the costs of spam in all its forms – from stock-touting to spreadsheet. Also, understand the drawbacks of traditional hardware- and software-based defenses – and the unique benefits of MessageLabs multi-layered, managed Anti-Spam solution; as illustrated by a real-world case study where MessageLabs stopped spam cold.
Download this white paper now!
See more Whitepapers |
 The Spy FilesFor Congress to do anything that helps protect consumers and the critical Internet infrastructure as a whole, it must pass laws that require proactive processes to protect computers, not that tell people how to deal with the resulting mess, says Ira Winkler. Click here to read the latest column by Ira Winkler |
Sponsored Links
CIO
Computerworld
CSO
DEMO
GamePro
Games.net
IDG Connect
IDG World Expo
Infoworld
The Industry Standard
ITworld
JavaWorld
LinuxWorld
MacUser
Macworld
Network World
PC World
Playlist
Copyright © 2008 Computerworld Inc. All
rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium
without express written permission of Computerworld Inc. is prohibited.
Computerworld and Computerworld.com and the respective logos are
trademarks of International Data Group Inc.
|
