January 22, 2003
SBC Shakedown
SBC supposedly owns a patent for web browsing and hyperlinks, and as this letter from SBC legal to museumtour.com contends.
Among the accusations are that, "the user interface of website www.museumtour.com includes a selector section that includes selector for navigating through the website document. The selectors remail in the selector section regardless of the document portion displayed in the document frame."
So basically, SBC is claiming that by having tabs for navigation, which always remain visible while on the site, museumtour.com is in violation of its patent.
To gain complaiance, companies can pay royalties based on a revenue schedule inclued in the letter.
Now why didn't they go after the big guys, like AOL, MSN, etc. instead of some little site? Is every personal site going to get a letter from SBC?
Posted by blipsman at January 22, 2003 07:38 AM