British Telecom has asserted a claim that it holds a patent on hyperlinks, the very backbone of the Web, and is now soliciting U.S. ISPs for licensing fees. “Anyone successfully claiming a patent on such fundamental technology, both the primitive hypertext facilities available today on the Web, and the much more sophisticated and useful ones being designed into xpointer and xlink by W3C, could hold the world to ransom,” says computer science professor (and coiner of the term “hyperlink”) Andries van Dam. – Salon