Hyperlink patent case fails to click: BT has lost its controversial bid to sue Prodigy Communications over a patent that it claimed covered the use of hyperlinks. U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon awarded Prodigy its motion for summary judgment to have the case dismissed, saying that no jury could find that Prodigy infringes BT's patent. The ruling frees all Internet service providers from the threat of having to pay a license fee to BT for hosting pages that use hyperlinks--the building blocks of the Web. If BT had won and license fees had been imposed, the charges would have almost certainly been passed on to ISP customers.

Well, thank goodness for THAT.

BT will probably appeal the dismissal, but I can't imagine that it will go any better at the appeals level. And at some point, they'll have to say, "You know, we're spending an awful lot of money on lawyers to keep losing a case that we knew we'd lose anyway."