In yet another move to rule the world via stealing ideas rather than doing honest work, British Telecom subsidary Utopia Communications today announced it is asserting its 1987 patent on the domain name system, used by the Internet.

While the original patent, ‘A Method of Organizing Digital Transmission Protocols Into a Human-Readable Format’ (#US1993000163856) does not specifically mention .COM names, it does describe using common words to replace cryptic data transmission methods.

According to Utopia’s Senior Vice President, Liam McInnis, “the patent does cover the techniques and technology that eventually grew into the IP address naming convention of domain names in popular use today.”

He further stated, “based on our study of the patent and prior work, and the requirements of maintaining profitability for our shareholders, we must at this time assert our patent rights in this matter”.

Currently, negotiations are underway with major domain name registration agencies to pay royalties for the use of domain names. While at present the dispute is limited to .COM names, according to legal experts there is no reason to believe that all domain name extensions will not be likewise taxed.

Details are not available regarding the company’s royalty claims, so it is too soon to tell whether extra charges will be applied to each and every domain by the registrars, or whether individual domain name holders will be responsible for paying royalties.

Further information can be found at the Press Release Section of the Utopia Communications website.