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Parties Behind Eolas Patent Reexam Revealed

Posted by timothy on from the party-like-it's-5,838,906 dept.

theodp writes "While news accounts credited Tim Berners-Lee's mighty pen with triggering the USPTO reexam of the Eolas plug-in patent that could negate a $520+ million judgment against Microsoft, newly released USPTO interview notes suggest the reexam may owe more to an alliance of tech giants who appear to have quietly advanced the same arguments to the USPTO weeks prior to Berners-Lee." See also some previous coverage of the Eolas patent circus, and more below about the USPTO reexam.

theodp continues "According to a 4-27 Interview Summary, the USPTO presented Eolas with a 10-14 letter signed by in-house counsel from Microsoft, AOL and Macromedia, a 10-15 letter from Adobe, and a 10-22 letter from the law firm of Sidley Austin (aka Microsoft's lawyers) in connection with its proposed rejection of Eolas' patent claims. All predated the 10-24 letter from the W3C's counsel as well as Berners-Lee's widely-publicized 10-28 letter, which seems unlikely to have prompted the USPTO's detailed 10-30 Reexam Order. The W3C has repeatedly had no comment when asked if the 'newly cited art' provided in its 10-24 filing had already been supplied earlier to the USPTO by others. UPDATE: In response, the W3C's Danny Weitzner points out that the preceding words are mine and should not be confused with those of a distinguished journalist."

3 of 84 comments (clear)

  1. It's only Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Who cares if the patent stands.

  2. Re:Panties Behind Eolas Patent Reexam Revealed??? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    It's a well-known fact that Tim Berners-Lee wears womens' panties. If you read through all the other comments, I'm sure some troll or other has posted a link to that interview where he talks about equal rights between the sexes requiring interchangeable clothing and so on. But we all know it's just an excuse for his..um..hobby.

  3. WARNING: Do not search for Mothman Prophecies! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
    Please under no circumstances search Google for "mothman prophecies"!

    Readers of the book, "The Mothman Prophecies," often experienced unnerving phenomena such as electronic devices emiting static, or strange sounds, or phonecalls from a mechanical voice reciting a series of numbers. When told about how the book was nearly impossible to find--gone missing from a multitude of libraries--and that the book's sequal, as well as its author had gone missing as well, it piqued my interest enough for me to inquire about it at our own university library the next day.

    Couldn't find it and then I turned to searching google. I found some links, but tonight to my horror a distorted, vaguely mechanical voice called me on my cellphone. No caller ID, just this horrible cold mechanical voice reading numbers.

    Now I'm fucking scared!