If you ever have this HTML codes lying somewhere in any of your website:
<a href="http://some.url"><img src="http://some.image.url" /></a>- you are infringing a patent granted to this patent troll.
A full description of the patent granted in the US is here while in Singapore, IPOS also granted the patent to them.
So far, apparently a few sites in Singapore have been issued invoices to pay up for the licensing fee to use their patent, ranging from few hundreds to thousands. It’d be interesting if they start invoicing the bigwigs like the SingTels or the .gov.sg sites for the usage.
I find it hilarious that someone can actually win a patent for something as fundamental as hotlinking, which came from Web 1.0.
I remembered back in 1998 when I had my first website, I had used those glaring blinking gif images to hotlink to other pages. Maybe I should have applied for patent then and will be a rich man now.
A patent troll as obvious as this, their claims will be laughed at and thrashed by the end of the week.
Further readings:
- HardwareZone investigates
- US patent 7065520
- Singapore patent 200301820-7
- Google search of the inventer
- The troll
- story on /.
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