Internet patents divide industry

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BOSTON -- Tim O'Reilly's company had a new and potentially lucrative idea in the early 1990s: Use advertising revenue to run a Web portal. Essentially, he says, Global Network Navigator invented the Internet banner ad.

According to a landmark court decision handed down five years ago this month, Mr. O'Reilly may have been able to patent the idea as a "business method" -- a move that could have changed the course of Internet history.

But even if he could have, he says he wouldn't have.

"If I had been able to put a patent on that and collect from everybody else who did it, that would have held back the industry tremendously," said Mr. O'Reilly, who after the sale of GNN to America Online, now heads O'Reilly Associates, a technology publishing company. He is a critic of broad patent protections.

That's one view of patents. The other is held by the likes of Jay Walker.

Like Mr. O'Reilly, Mr. Walker is an cyber-commerce pioneer -- he founded Priceline.com -- and considers himself a champion of innovation.

But Mr. Walker's company, Walker Digital LLC of Stamford, Conn., has made a business of patenting just about any business method it can. He owns more than 200, including ones on online dating and running slot machines.

Mr. Walker applauds Mr. O'Reilly's selflessness but disputes the logic. Patent rights don't slow technological innovation, he says; they spur it.

"If you want to give your house to the city for a public park, great," he said. "On the other hand, we shouldn't deny people the right to have houses."