SBC is enforcing a patent on a common Web navigation technology, asking infringing companies to pay licensing and royalty fees.
SBC Communications, Inc. recently sent letters to owners of several web sites, claiming the Web sites had infringed on a patent filed by the company. The patent protects the use of a Structured Document Browser which allows web designers to build a well-formed interface for their web site. SBC is looking to collect licensing and royalty fees from those companies infringing on the patent.
In U.S. Patent No. 5,933,841 and 6,442,574 both entitled Structured Document Browser, SBC describes "a user interface that remains uniform and familiar as the user browses documents according to their structure instead of their contents." As users browse a Web site, they would be provided with a familiar layout that could retain a company's logo, or navigation in the same location within the browser, making it easier for users to follow the site.
The U.S. site Museum Tours was one of the first few companies that received such a letter addressed from SBC Intellectual Property which informed the company of the violations. The forty page letter continued to recount a proposed rate schedule that would ask companies to pay annual licensing and royalty fees in order to continue to utilize the technology. The royalties would increase based on the infringing company's revenue in any given year. Licensing fees start at $1,581 annually and can rise to as much as $50,000,000. Royalties would range from $527/year to $16,666,667/year for companies with annual revenues of $10,000,000,000.
If successful in showing ownership of this layout idea, SBC stands to collect billions of dollars from thousands of U.S. Web sites. The use of this common design and layout is used by most companies on the Web, including those such as eBay and Amazon.com. Though the patent was officially filed by SBC in 1996, it is thought that the idea and utilization of this idea predated the filing. On his web log, Silicon Valley technology journalist Dan Gilmour asked for readers to submit examples of prior art that predated the filing. Many users were able to help provide such examples, showing or describing the technology's use prior to the patents' filing dates.
The situation has drawn the ire of many, directed at both SBC and the U.S. Patent Office. There are those who are upset that SBC would try to collect on a technology that had previously existed, and that had proliferated its way throughout most sites on the Web.
To some, however, it is an even greater offense that such a patent was even granted to the company in the first place. The Patent Office has been under fire recently due to a patent owned by Amazon.com for its 1-click ordering technology. Critics have protested the use of such patents, claiming that "they slow down innovation by curtailing the adoption of certain obvious Web features."
A resolution to this situation could surely change the face of the Internet and Web sites in the future. If upheld, SBC's patent could make companies rethink the standard ideas in designing Web sites for consumers. Web designers will have to decide whether designing a site to an accepted standard is worth the millions of dollars in licensing and royalty fees each year.
