Dell, Office Depot sued over alleged patent infringement

Internet Media said it is the owner of US patent 6,049,835.

This describes a system for providing easy access to the World Wide Web using a published list of pre-selected Internet locations together with unique multidigit jump codes.

According to the plaintiff, each of the defendants provides catalogues and print adverts some or all of which include a code, which when entered into a box on a particular page, allows users to quickly access desired URLs.

The inventor of the patent is Eric Gagnon, who has been in the advertising business for over 20 years, says the deposition. In 1995, Internet Media published a book called What's on the Web which provided a list of thousands of web URLs with a unique code.

Dell and the other firms use a similar code system on their web sites. Therefore Internet Media wants damages because it believes its 835 patent has been infringed. µ