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W3C Requests Eolas Patent Re-Examination

Posted by timothy on from the fellas-this-ought-not-fly dept.

x0n writes "Verbatim from W3: Acting on the advice of the W3C HTML Patent Advisory Group, W3C has presented the United States Patent and Trademark Office with prior art establishing that US Patent No. 5,838,906 (the '906 patent) is invalid. W3C Director Tim Berners-Lee has written an unprecedented request to U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property James E. Rogan to take action to remove the patent to allow operation of the Web. Read the briefing." techsoldaten adds a link to this New York Times story on the move, and bgalbs points out the W3C's detailed filing describing prior art provided to the USPTO Director's office, "along with a letter from Tim Berners-Lee asking that the so-called Eolas patent be revoked," writing "Here's hoping it does some good; between this and the Lotus Notes prior art, perhaps there's hope this will all go away."

13 of 342 comments (clear)

  1. so ? by mirko · · Score: 1, Funny

    2 stories ago, we wished Microsoft would be punished for firing a blogger, no we wish they'd stop being sued by Eolas...
    Thanks Slashdot, but I'm confused, now.

    --
    Trolling using another account since 2005.
    1. Re:so ? by Dun+Malg · · Score: 5, Funny
      2 stories ago, we wished Microsoft would be punished for firing a blogger, no we wish they'd stop being sued by Eolas... Thanks Slashdot, but I'm confused, now.

      It helps if you stop and realize that /. isn't a single, monolithic block of identically programmed robots.

      In reality, it is a collection of pehaps a half-dozen different monolithic blocks of identically programmed robots. The "punish MS" group is Block 1. The "patents bad" group is Block 4.

      --
      If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
    2. Re:so ? by Dun+Malg · · Score: 5, Funny
      So what are the missing blocks that you do not list, or is this one of those unfathomable myseries of life?

      I hadn't really thought about it, but off the top of my head:

      Block 1 - "MS bad"
      Block 2 - "Linux/OSS rulez!"
      Block 3 - "Capitalist/government Conspiracy!"
      Block 4 - "Patents/copyrights bad"
      Block 5 - "redundant jokes" (soviet russia, beowulf cluster, etc)
      Block 6 - "contrarians" (they automatically believe the opposite of the other 5 blocks)

      I suppose there are more, but those are the ones the occur to me as I write...

      --
      If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
    3. Re:so ? by the_mad_poster · · Score: 5, Funny

      Patents and copyrights aren't bad, the abuses of them are.

      Oh, wait. That's Block 0: the rational individual block.

      --
      Alito: A vote for Alito is a punch in the eye to put that bitch back in her place!
    4. Re:so ? by tarquin_fim_bim · · Score: 5, Funny

      O.K. but I suggest the use of the word bloc instead, it has a more sinister conspiratorial ring to it.

    5. Re:so ? by Mattcelt · · Score: 3, Funny

      So...

      Block 0 - "Rational Individual"
      Block 1 - "MS bad"
      Block 2 - "Linux/OSS rulez!"
      Block 3 - "Capitalist/government Conspiracy!"
      Block 4 - "Patents/copyrights bad"
      Block 5 - "redundant jokes" (soviet russia, beowulf cluster, etc)
      Block 6 - "contrarians" (they automatically believe the opposite of the other 5 blocks)

      It seems that the blocks are numbered by their exponential order. Block 6 obviously has the highest population on /. And since x^0=1, it follows that there is only one rational individual here.

      Mathematical proof! I knew it!

    6. Re:so ? by DetrimentalFiend · · Score: 2, Funny

      The only block that doesn't hate SCO is 6. Otherwise, slashdoters have put aside their differences and united to hate SCO.

    7. Re:so ? by wkitchen · · Score: 2, Funny

      You must be bloc(k) 6.

    8. Re:so ? by tarquin_fim_bim · · Score: 2, Funny

      "You must be bloc(k) 6."

      I must disagree.

  2. Re:This is absurd by mcmonkey · · Score: 2, Funny
    There should be no need for prior art. The very idea that you can have a site where the same wankers post about how much linux rulez and BSD is dead and l33t k1dd13s sux0rz and then mod themselves 'insightful' or 'funny' and then pat themselves on the back on how great that mod was with a meta-mod is just absurd beyond belief. A wonderful example of what nonsense the entire idea of 'world wide web' is.

    One bad idea doesn't mean all ideas are bad.

  3. Re:Oh, THAT eolas patent by bcolflesh · · Score: 4, Funny

    One patent to rule them all, one patent to find them, one patent to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.

  4. My enemy's.. by fanatic · · Score: 3, Funny

    Me enemy's enemy's friend's enemy's friend is .. oh shit, I give up.

    --
    "that's not encryption - it's a new perl script that I'm working on..." - from some Matrix parody
  5. Re:gotta love idiots by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    "gotta love idiots" is now a trademark of SCO.

    It sounds really cool:

    SCO - gotta love idiots