Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
No, it's not the hyperlinks that were patented; it was the idea of smart recognition of items in text that can be converted into useful hyperlinks. That doesn't strike me as at all ridiculous.
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The sophisticated idea is the "smart recognition of items in text", which is based upon 50 year old computer science research. The "converted into useful hyperlinks" bit (which is the basis of the patent) may have been a novel idea at the time (the patent is from 1996) but should be considered obvious (it amounts to placing the data into the data structures that the software uses for URLs).
At any rate, this amounts to a five or six year setback for a minor feature. It isn't like some industries, that have been set back 20 years over patents that are just being sat on.