BT's lawsuit, filed Wednesday in federal court in White Plains, N.Y., comes six months after the company told Prodigy and 16 other Internet service providers that they were making unauthorized use of a technology that, according to BT, provides the underpinning for the Internet. Perry would not say whether BT would be filing suits against other ISPs as well. Among the ISPs contacted by BT was America Online. Besides connecting computer users to the Internet, the patent also covers the technology for hyperlinks, BT says.
Hyperlinks allow computer users to skip from one Web page to another with a single mouse click.
Perry said BT filed for the patent in the United Kingdom in 1976 and in the United States in 1977. The patent application makes no mention of the Internet, he said, but BT believes that the technology is essential in connecting computer users to the Internet. In its suit, London-based BT says it never gave Prodigy permission to use the patent and now wants a federal judge to bar the Internet service provider from employing it unless Prodigy pays licensing fees. A telephone call to White Plains, N.Y.-based Prodigy was not immediately returned. All Rights Reserved.