Appeals Court Sends Eolas Case Back For New Trial

Rolan writes "News.com is reporting that an Appeals court has partially overturned the lower court's decision in favor of Eolas. From the story: "Microsoft on Wednesday claimed a victory in a high-profile Web browser patent dispute, as an appeals court partially reversed a lower court decision that left the software giant exposed to $565 million in damages." The article does not say what part was or was not overturned." Reader shogusumi adds a link to the ruling itself (PDF), supplies a link handy for catching up with the claims at issue here, and writes "As a refresher, this is the case that claims that the functionality provided by IE through the use of embed, applet, and object tags violates a patent owned by Eolas and the University of California."

Comments

Skrew MICROSOFT!........OH WAIT..

[scosco62]

This is a good test of how strong your IP belief system is...............especially if you hate Microsoft.

IHMO, some things should remain unpatentable....until both sides on the IP issue agree on that, the patent lawyers will continue to make everyone pay. I don't think case will be the one that does it either.

Just my 2 cents.........

No patent

[Virtual Karma]

Eolas pretty much have the patent on the way the modern browser works. I feel that this patent should not be granted. I no body has this paptent to their credit. It would be a BIG loss to the browser world

Re:Second Major Victory for Microsoft in as many d

[freshman_a]

I'll admit I'm not the biggest MS fan in the world. However, if the situation were reversed, and MS was claiming to own the patent, I think a lot of peoples' tones would be different (i.e. hoping that MS wasn't granted the patent). I hate to say it, but I sort of hope MS wins, but with the outcome being that no one is awarded the patent. That way no browser will be (or potentially be) affected, whether it be IE, Firefox, Opera, or whatever. But that's just MHO...

Legal Code

[Doc Ruby]

More and more lawsuits are winding up in "News for Nerds". Of course it's sharkbait, tainting geeks with the blood in the water. But maybe a diet of geeks, vs. ex-jock corporate fatcats, will fatten the lawyers on more constructive food for thought. Can the days of legislative lintian reports be that far off?

The enemy of my enemy is not my friend

[etymxris]

But in this case, Eolas is the enemy of everyone. If Microsoft does well here, it's not a victory so much for Microsoft as it is for everyone. I wish them luck.

Did Microsoft really violate Eolas licensing?

[tsalaroth]

This is from the www-talk@w3.org mailing list archives:

From: Mike Doyle

Please note from our Web site that, in almost all cases, Eolas' Weblet-related technologies will be licensed free of charge for noncommercial use.

Does this mean that the only case that it DOES violate it is if you're Microsoft?

I dislike a lot of things about Microsoft, but it looks to me like they were exercising on Mr. Doyle's offer. I could be wrong..

Re:Did Microsoft really violate Eolas licensing?

[stratjakt]

In ALMOST all cases.

That's just a smokescreen for "we won't start suing again until we run low on bucks".

If they win, what are they going to do with the cash? Use it to prop up their legal department. Then they can do what SCO dreamed of doing - send a bill to every end user of every owner of every computer. This patent goes beyond simple web browsers.

It can concievably cover anything that "seamlessly loads plugins based on input data". Photoshop loads a TIFF filter if you open a TIFF file, Winamp loads the FLAC module if you open a FLAC file, etc.

Modern IP law will make the US a third world country in the information age, if no sanity is introduced. Give it 50 years or so. Other countries don't have these shackles.

Re:Patent For Sale?

[stratjakt]

Why would they sell it?

If Eolas wins this case, they have themselves a license to print money, since this patent is applicable to any number of software projects.

They can pull an SCO and threaten every individual user of practically every web browser, and more. Lots of apps seamlessly load plugins based on the input data, say, Winamp.

Yessir, free money, and they didn't have to work a day in their lives to earn it.

Re:Second Major Victory for Microsoft in as many d

[The Bungi]

Really? What are you going to say when this case stands, Microsoft gets screwed on this patent and then Eolas turns around and tries to screw the Mozilla foundation, mmm? Are you going to cross your fingers as well?

The president of Eolas once said he wouldn't go after Mozilla. If FF becomes popular enough, do you figure he's going to keep his "word"?

You just keep crossing your fingers. Microsoft can afford to pay Eolas off. Your favorite cheap software foundations can't.