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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 $565 million in damages." The article does not say what part was or was not overturned." Reader shogusumi adds a link to the ruling itself (PDF), supplies a link handy for catching up with the claims at issue here, and writes "As a refresher, this is the case that claims that the functionality provided by IE through the use of embed, applet, and object tags violates a patent owned by Eolas and the University of California."
Why buy the patent when you are already hiring the most expensive lawyers in the country. They could help you win anything and everything in a legal system that revolves around money. Which M$ obviously has plenty of.
M$ strategy
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1.) Send lawyer and drag case out for 5 years till the technology doesn't matter
2.) Send lawyer and drag case out for 5 years till the opposition can't afford their lawyers anymore.
3.) Send lawyer and win
No, you can't patent anything. Lawyers, for instance, know what a hassle the patent system is and aren't about to sick that system on themselves by allowing legal strategy patents, as a hypothetical example.
They know what a benefit it is to their business to make sure all other fields of endeavor are patentable.
If I recall correctly, some years ago in the US surgeons turned down the chance to lock up their work by allowing patents on surgical techniques.
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