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Eolas vs. Microsoft Verdict Stands, Despite ReExam

Posted by simoniker on from the big-webbing-deal dept.

theodp writes "A federal judge on Wednesday upheld a jury's $521 million verdict against Microsoft in the high-profile Web browser patent infringement lawsuit, denying Microsoft's motion to suspend a decision until the USPTO completes a reexamination of the patent. Eolas was also awarded prejudgment interest of $45 million. An injunction against future sales of IE that contain technology based on Eolas' patent was also granted, but put on hold pending an appeal."

5 of 55 comments (clear)

  1. Re:on a more serious note... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's called "due process" and if you don't grant Microsoft that right, then who will grant it to you when you are in need of it?

  2. Re:Does this mean ... by chris_mahan · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Facetious Flash:

    Eolas Sues Mozilla and get source code for free.

    In other news, the main sourceforge server and othe open source communities are moved to India, slightly out of reach of the US Courts.

    On a more serious note:
    If this happens, we can all go back to the good old days of well-formed html with linked media resources.

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    "Piter, too, is dead."

  3. Re:This is extremely good news for us by AllUsernamesAreGone · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The problem is that, this sort of hiccup aside, the patent situation is exactly what the big players in the tech industry want. Yes, that's .5 billion Microsoft is now out of pocket, but the potential loss could be even more immense if patent laws were changed to be more accurate - microsoft patents are not just used to prevent newcomers, they are used in cross licening schemes and as a revenue source. If a substantial number of them were cancelled it could result in microsoft having to pay future and possible back licenses. And it wouldn't just be microsoft, a large number of big companies would suddenly find fairly significant holes where patents sit now.

    I'd actually like that to happen (I'm vicious that way) but the tech industry is one big Old Boys network, it isn't going to push for reform.

  4. Re:Bad for IE users by Johnny+Mnemonic · · Score: 3, Insightful


    Now instead of working seamlessly, there will be a pop-up dialog to prompt the user to activate the desired control.

    Or, stop using ActiveX. Use javascript instead; added benefit: Linux and Mac users can now use your site.

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    $tar -xvf .sig.tar
  5. Re:Bad for IE users by the+quick+brown+fox · · Score: 2, Insightful
    I think designers will be most affected by this in relation to Flash. There's plenty you can do in Flash that would be inconvenient or impossible to do in js/DHTML. And Linux and Mac users can use Flash.

    This sucks.